twi-ny recommended events

HUMAN RESOURCES

Who: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
What: Live telephone play
Where: Your personal phone
When: October 1 – November 1, $7
Why: One of my favorite, and most unusual, artistic experiences during the pandemic lockdown has been On Site Opera’s To My Distant Love, a reimagining of Beethoven’s six-song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, which starts out over email and finishes in a big way over the phone, with a singer and pianist performing just for you, using only sound, no images or video. DC-based Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is also taking the sonic route with Human Resources, a telephone play developed by Brittany K. Allen, Christopher Chen, Hansol Jung, Sarah Lunnie, Stowe Nelson, Zeniba Now, and Yuvika Tolani in conjunction with Telephonic Literary Union. For a $7 minimum fee, you call up a “human resources” department to file a complaint or for another reason and go on an adventure of the mind as you seek fulfillment during these difficult times. Each ticket gives you a four-day window to complete the call. During the Covid-19 crisis, Woolly Mammoth is also participating in Play at Home, a free collection of ten-minute plays written specifically for people to read and/or perform at home, not onstage, in partnership with Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Public Theater, and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; among Woolly’s commissions are Alshea Harris’s If, Can, Mayhap, Mike Lew’s Performance Review, Diana Oh’s The Impossible Play, Dani Figueroa Edidi’s The Diaz Family Talent Show, and Michael R. Jackson’s Trees on Broadway.

THE DANCE NOW STORY

Who: Honorees Gus Solomons jr., Robert Battle, Jane Comfort, Claire Porter, Satoshi Haga, David Parker/the Bang Group, many dance companies
What: Annual festival moves from Joe’s Pub to online for twenty-fifth anniversary
Where: Dance Now online
When: September 10 – May 20, performances $10, performance plus celebration $20,
Why: Dance Now is celebrating its silver anniversary by looking at the past and into the future with “The Dance Now Story,” a six-part virtual series that kicked off September 10 with new five-minute digital commissions from Ayodele Casel, Mike Esperanza, and LMnO3 in addition to archival works from HUMA, Tricia Brouk, and DN honoree Gus Solomons jr.; it will be followed by a live, virtual Artist-to-Audience Celebration on October 1 at 7:00 hosted by TruDee. Chapter two takes place October 8 with new digital commissions from Jamal Jackson and Nicole Wolcott & Katy Pyle, along with archival works from Wanjiru Kamuyu & Katherine Helen Fisher and DN honoree Robert Battle; the live celebration is set for October 22 with host Christal Brown. “The DN Story” continues November 12 with new digital commissions from Mariana Valencia and Nicole Vaughan-Diaz & Orlando Hernandez and archival works from Take Dance & Amber Sloan and DN honoree Jane Comfort, with the celebration set for December 3 with host Sara Juli. Chapter four launches on February 11 with new digital commissions by Kate Ladenheim, Alice Sheppard, Subject: Matter, and Maleek Washington and archival works from Adam Barruch and Mark Gindick, with a February 25 celebration honoring Claire Porter with host TruDee.

On March 11, chapter five features new digital commissions by Tsiambwom M. Akuchu, Brendan Drake, and Jasmine Hearn and archival works by Ruben Graciani and Megan Williams, with a March 25 party honoring Satoshi Haga, hosted by Germaul Barnes. And the series concludes May 6 with new digital commissions by Sarah Chien, Kayla Farrish, and Joshua L. Peugh and archival works by John Heginbotham and Paula Josa-Jones, along with the final live Artist-to-Audience Celebration, honoring David Parker/the Bang Group on May 20, hosted by Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. The Dance Now festival usually takes place at Joe’s Pub, so maybe parts of the event will be allowed to move indoors by the time some of the later chapters come up. Virtual tickets are $10 for each chapter performance, which you can watch any time once it releases, and $20 for access to the chapter as well as the live party.

BUNHEADS: MISTY COPELAND IN CONVERSATION WITH VANITY FAIR’S RADHIKA JONES

Who: Misty Copeland, Radhika Jones
What: Online discussion
Where: 92nd St. Y online
When: Wednesday, September 30, $10, 7:00
Why: “When Miss Bradley announced they’d be performing the ballet Coppélia for the recital, everyone in Misty’s class shouted excitedly and gathered around to hear their teacher tell the story of Coppélia. Misty didn’t know what Coppélia meant, and she was too shy to ask — especially since it was her first ballet class ever! So Misty took a spot on the floor, and before she knew it, she was completely entranced as Miss Bradley told the tale.” So begins Misty Copeland’s second children’s book, Bunheads (Putnam, September 29, $17.99), the follow-up to her debut, The Firebird. The start of a new series, Bunheads, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey, shares Copeland’s initial foray into the world of ballet as a child; she would grow up to become the first African American female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. On September 30 at 7:00, she will launch the book in a livestreamed conversation with Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones in a talk hosted by the 92nd St. online. You can listen to a clip of Copeland reading from the book here.

ARTISTS JUDITH BERNSTEIN AND KIM JONES: HUMOR AND POLITICS IN ART

Peter Saul, Ronald Reagan in Grenada, acrylic on canvas, 1984 (Hall Collection. Courtesy Hall Art Foundation. Photo: Jeffrey Nintzel)

Who: Judith Bernstein, Kim Jones, Gary Carrion-Murayari
What: New Museum Conversations
Where: New Museum Zoom
When: Wednesday September 30, free with advance RSVP, 8:00
Why: There doesn’t seem to be a lot to laugh about these days, what with the Covid-19 crisis, protests over police brutality, an economy in freefall, the battle over the next Supreme Court justice, and the upcoming contentious presidential election. But artists Judith Bernstein and Kim Jones are going to try to make us smile even given our current state of chaos when they sit down for the New Museum Conversation “Humor and Politics in Art” on Zoom with curator Gary Carrion-Murayari. The provocative seventy-seven-year-old Newark-born, NYC-based Bernstein has been fighting the status quo in her work for more than fifty years, while seventy-six-year-old California-born, NYC-based performance artist Jones has been stoking controversy in his oeuvre since the mid-1970s. The talk will focus on eighty-six-year-old California-born artist Peter Saul’s “Crime and Punishment,” which is on view at the New Museum through January 3. You can see Saul’s February 27 pre-shutdown talk with New Museum director Massimiliano Gioni here.

Bernstein was at the New Museum with her 2012-13 solo exhibition “Hard”; she also participated in the group shows “After Hours: Murals on the Bowery” in 2011 and “The Last Newspaper: Contemporary Art, Curating Histories, Alternative Models” in 2010-11 and such talks as “Who’s Afraid of the New Now?” in 2017; Jones’s relationship with the museum includes “Kim Jones as the Mudman” in 1986, “Temporarily Possessed: The Semi-Permanent Collection” in 1995, and “Collage: The Unmonumental Picture” in 2008. Expect a raucous, no-holds-barred discussion with little subtlety.

THE NAATCO NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP PROJECT: ROMEO AND JULIET

Who: National Asian American Theatre Company, Two River Theater
What: Virtual benefit reading of modern verse translation
Where: Two River Rising,
When: Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, $25, 7:00
Why: In 2015, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced “Play On Shakespeare,” an ambitious project in which thirty-six contemporary playwrights would provide modern translations of all thirty-nine of the Bard’s plays. On September 30 and October 1, the NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), in a collaboration between the National Asian American Theatre Company and Two River Theater in New Jersey, will present an online benefit reading of South Korean playwright Hansol Jung’s (Wild Goose Dreams, Cardboard Piano) interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, originally commissioned for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. The all-Asian American cast features Mitchell Winter as Romeo, Stephanie Hsu as Juliet, Joel de la Fuente as Capulet, David Huynh as Mercutio, Tina Chilip as Tybalt, Vanessa Kai as Lady Capulet, Mia Katigbak as the nurse, Andrew Pang as Friar Laurence, Jon Norman Schneider as Petruchio, and Jeena Yi as Benvolio, with all performers taking on multiple roles; Obie winner Chay Yew (A Language of Their Own, Wonderland) serves as director.

“To most theater lovers, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a dramatic palimpsest; resonant and complicated, it remains a core myth for many,” TRT artistic director John Dias said in a statement. “Itself layered with borrowed stories and cultural appropriation, R&J beats with a universal heart of love and hate. The play still has much to teach us, and I love the echoes and layers that Hansol has added to it.” The first part of the show will be livestreamed on September 30 at 7:30, with part two streaming October 1 at 7:30, followed by a Q&A. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Asian Pride Project, which “celebrates the journeys, triumphs, and struggles of LGBTQ individuals and our Asian and Pacific Islander families and communities.” Future NNPP productions include NAATCO collaborating with Long Wharf Theatre on Madhuri Shekar’s Queen in February 2021 as well as with New York Theatre Workshop and Soho Rep.

VIRTUAL READING: THE TRIBUTE ARTIST

Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist goes virtual September 30 – October 4

Who: Charles Busch, Mary Bacon, Julie Halston, Keira Keeley, Carole Monferdini, Jonathan Walker
What: Virtual reading
Where: Primary Stages, 59E59
When: September 30 – October 4, $35 (opening night $50 with Zoom talkback and reception)
Why: In 2014, Primary Stages presented Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist at 59E59. In my review, I wrote that the show “is a wonderfully entertaining homage to the classic screwball comedies and films noir of the 1930s and ’40s. . . . Busch is a hoot as Jimmy, chewing up the scenery in Gregory Gale’s fab costumes and Katherine Carr’s wacky wigs while mixing in the wacky slapstick of Lucille Ball and the grace of Katharine Hepburn, and Julie Halston has a field day as his loud, acerbic, quick-witted sidekick. Busch veteran Jonathan Walker supplies a big dose of testosterone to the proceedings, including a scene-stealing monologue late in the second act.” The original cast, which also features Mary Bacon, Keira Keeley, and Carole Monferdini, is back for six live readings, directed again by Carl Andress, from September 30 through October 4 via the renewed partnership between Primary Stages and 59E59; tickets are $35 except for opening night, when $50 also gets you into a Zoom talkback and reception with members of the cast and crew. Primary Stages is also hosting the online workshop “Seeing Between the Lines” (September 29, $40, 6:00) with associate artistic director Erin Daley. Busch previously reunited with the cast of The Confession of Lily Dare for a terrific Plays in the House one-time-only benefit reading for the Actors Fund; you can get a sneak peek at the Zoom edition of The Tribute Artist here.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: LIVE PERFORMANCES IN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT

Who: Tony Roberts, Jodie Markell, Stephen Schnetzer, Rex Reed
What: Live monthly readings online and in person
Where: Theatre 80, 80 St. Marks Place
When: September 29, free in person, Zoom $25, 646-366-9340, 2:00
Why: Food for Thought continues its twentieth anniversary season with a program that provides yet more food for thought. On September 29 at 2:00, the company, founded in 2000 to present one-act plays in intimate settings, with little or no sets or costumes, just actors reading well-known or less-familiar works, is performing a trio of tales, both online and in person at Theatre 80 at 80 St. Marks Place. Yes, a limited number of first-come, first-served free seats are available at the historic Village theater, following New York City guidelines with temperature checks, masks, and social distancing, and all attendees must have recently tested negative for Covid-19; you can also livestream the show over Zoom for $25. The matinee includes Tony nominee Tony Roberts reading excerpts from his 2015 autobiography, Do You Know Me?, and Jodie Markell, Stephen Schnetzer, and Rex Reed (yes, that Rex Reed) starring in Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner Peter Stone’s Commercial Break (previously performed by Lauren Bacall and Robert Preston and initially written for Audrey Hepburn in Charade) and FFT creator Susan Charlotte’s Come On, directed by Antony Marsellis. A live Q&A will follow. The season began with Arthur Miller’s I Can’t Remember Anything, Robert Anderson’s I’m Herbert, and Daniel Rose’s Eichmann in Israel on July 13 (with Bob Dishy, Judy Graubart, Marilyn Sokol, and Schnetzer) and Christopher Durang’s Mrs. Sorken and Tennessee Williams’s I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow on August 17 (with Nathan Darrow, Delphi Harrington, Kristine Nielsen, and Schnetzer); next up for Food for Thought’s “Live Performances in a Safe Environment” series are Dorothy Parker’s Here We Are and excerpts from the work of Lynn Nottage on October 19, A. R. Gurney’s The Love Course on November 16, and Mel Brooks’s Of Fathers and Sons and Durang’s Wanda’s Visit on December 14.