twi-ny recommended events

WHO’S THERE: HAMLET AND BLACK LIVES

Chukwudi Iwuji will discuss the 2016 Public Theater Mobile Unit production of Hamlet in virtual program on November 10 (photo by Joan Marcus)

Who: Karen Ann Daniels, Chukwudi Iwuji, Patricia MacGregor, James Shapiro, Praycious Wilson-Gay
What: Discussion about race, Shakespeare, community, and the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit
Where: The Public Theater website and YouTube channel
When: Tuesday, November 10, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: In the fall of 2016, the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit, after traveling across New York City, brought Patricia McGregor’s contemporary production of Hamlet to the Shiva Theater; I called the show “a playful adaptation highlighted by a superior performance by Olivier Award winner and Royal Shakespeare Company associate artist Iwuji, who is both inspired and inspiring as Hamlet. Iwuji, who has never played the role before, jumps in feet first, giving his all, often making direct eye contact with the audience to bring them further into the story. He does a lot of shouting, but he balances that with beautifully rendered soliloquies that (almost) feel like they could have been written today.” With the Public Theater and the Mobile Unit shut down because of the pandemic, the downtown institution will be presenting the virtual program “Who’s There: Hamlet and Black Lives,” a free discussion with Iwuji and McGregor on November 10 at 7:00. It is exciting to watch the actor talk about Shakespeare; on June 29, he delivered an impassioned reading of the “Homely Swain” speech from Henry IV and then waxed poetic about the play for a Red Bull Theater RemakaBULL Podversation, which can be viewed here. The Public presentation will explore Hamlet and the Mobile Unit itself within the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and the state of our divided nation, with Iwuji and McGregor joined by Mobile Unit director Karen Ann Daniels, Mobile Unit community programs manager Praycious Wilson-Gay, and Shakespeare scholar in residence James Shapiro.

A TRIBUTE TO TONI MORRISON: SONG OF SOLOMON MARATHON READING

Who: Edwige Danticat, Jacqueline Woodson, Tommy Orange, Jesmyn Ward, Margaret Atwood, Hilton Als, Jennifer Egan, Jason Reynolds, Brit Bennett, Jesmyn Ward, Lorrie Moore, Ocean Vuong, Robin Coste Lewis, Tayari Jones, Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, Louise Erdrich, Kevin Young, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Lisa Lucas
What: Virtual benefit reading
Where: Literacy Partners
When: Friday, November 27, 8:00 – 11:00 pm; Saturday, November 28, 2:00 – 6:00 pm; Sunday, November 29, 2:00 – 6:30 pm, free for a limited time with code FB2020
Why: It would be fascinating to hear what Toni Morrison would be thinking today, as Joe Biden has been announced as the president-elect, with Kamala Harris as his vice president. Shortly after Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, Morrison penned an article for the New Yorker, “Making America White Again,” in which she wrote, “Personal debasement is not easy for white people (especially for white men), but to retain the conviction of their superiority to others — especially to black people — they are willing to risk contempt, and to be reviled by the mature, the sophisticated, and the strong. If it weren’t so ignorant and pitiful, one could mourn this collapse of dignity in service to an evil cause. . . . So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength. These people are not so much angry as terrified, with the kind of terror that makes knees tremble.”

Morrison, who passed away in August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight, is being celebrated November 27-29 with a three-day all-star marathon reading of her third novel, 1977’s Song of Solomon, which earned her the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The life story of Macon “Milkman” Dead III will be read by Edwige Danticat, Jacqueline Woodson, Tommy Orange, Jesmyn Ward, Margaret Atwood, Hilton Als, Jennifer Egan, Jason Reynolds, Brit Bennett, Jesmyn Ward, Lorrie Moore, Ocean Vuong, Robin Coste Lewis, Tayari Jones, Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, and Louise Erdrich, with introductions by Kevin Young, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Lisa Lucas. The event is part of “Words Shape Our World: A Literacy & Social Justice Series,” benefiting Literacy Partners, a nonprofit education organization that “focuses on parents to help them build the literacy and language skills they need to succeed in today’s society while promoting their children’s learning at home. . . . Since the emancipation of people who were enslaved, adult literacy has been central to Black liberation. We will continue to do the work until racism is eliminated from our economy and education system and every family has the opportunity to thrive.” Tickets to the benefit range from $100 to $1,000, but for a limited time they are free with the code FB2020 (although a $5 donation is suggested if you can, and $20 gets you a book bundle). “Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boil down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?,” a character says in Song of Solomon. It’s frightening that especially in the age of Covid-19, the answer is not always what you’d expect.

MTC VIRTUAL THEATRE: TED SNOWDON READING SERIES

Charlie Oh’s Long kicks off MTC virtual spring reading series/

Who: Manhattan Theatre Club
What: Virtual fall reading series
Where: MTC YouTube channel
When: Tuesdays, November 10 – December 15, free, 2:00 (available for viewing through the following Saturday at 2:00)
Why: During the pandemic, Manhattan Theatre Club has featured such online programming as mini-modules about dramatic openings, family stories, creating strong characters, earned endings, and other topics; #TalkbackTuesdays; artist conversations; Stargate Theatre; student monologues; and other virtual presentations that can be viewed here. In addition, the Ted Snowdon Reading Series in the spring consisted of online readings of Good Time Charlie and The Collapse.

The fall reading season comprises five new plays (including some commissions), kicking off November 10 with Charlie Oh’s Long, directed by Dustin Wills and starring Christian DeMarais, Raymond Lee, Daniel Liu, and Tara Summers, followed November 17 by Julia Izumi’s (An Audio Guide for) Unsung Snails and Heroes, directed by Natsu Onoda Power; December 1 by Brittany K. Allen’s Ball Change, directed by Margot Bordelon; December 8 by Stacey Rose’s As Is: Conversations with Big Black Women in Confined Spaces, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene; and December 15 by Penelope Skinner’s Friendly Monsters, directed by Nicole Charles. The series, which focuses on developing innovative new work, is named for and supported by theater producer Ted Snowdon and began back in 1999 (when Cherry Jones appeared in David Auburn’s Proof); among the playwrights whose work has been presented in the past are Theresa Rebeck, Adam Rapp, Mike Daisey, Amy Herzog, Alfred Uhry, Matthew Lopez, Ayad Akhtar, Jocelyn Bioh, and Lauren Yee. Each free reading will be livestreamed at Tuesday at 2:00 on YouTube and will be available for viewing through the following Saturday at 2:00. MTC will also be inaugurating “The Show Goes On,” looking back at its history, later this month, and its annual gala will go virtual in December.

IN CONVERSATION: GEORGE CONDO AND MASSIMILIANO GIONI

George Condo, Internal Riot, acrylic, pigment stick, and metallic paint on linen, 2020 (© George Condo / photo by Thomas Barratt)

Who: George Condo, Massimiliano Gioni
What: Livestreamed webinar
Where: Hauser & Wirth Zoom
When: Monday, November 9, free with advance RSVP, 1:00
Why: This past spring, Hauser & Wirth presented the online program “Distanced Figures: George Condo,” in which the New Hampshire-born, New York-based artist discussed his virtual exhibition, “Drawings for Distanced Figures,” and took attendees inside his Hamptons studio to share his working methods during quarantine. “I love to draw, and in the usual context of privacy, one doesn’t think of the term isolation or forced separation; rather, it’s a space to create without being watched,” he noted about the show. On November 9 at 1:00, the purveyor of “physiognomical abstraction” will talk about his new exhibit, “Internal Riot,” which continues in-person at Hauser & Wirth’s 542 West 22nd St. gallery, speaking with New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni; admission is free with advance RSVP. You can reserve free timed tickets see the exhibition, which Condo describes as consisting of “composites of various psychological states,” here. (You will also have access to “Jack Whitten: I Am the Object.”)

PERSPECTIVES ON PLAYWRITING: MASTER CLASSES

Raja Feather Kelly, Jaclyn Backhaus, and Heather Christian are latest to participate in Playwrights Horizons’ free, virtual master classes

Who: Jaclyn Backhaus, Heather Christian
What: Playwrights Horizons virtual master classes
Where: Playwrights Horizons YouTube channel
When: Monday, November 9 & 16, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 7:00
Why: On October 26, Playwrights Horizons continued its virtual series, “Perspectives on Playwriting: Master Classes,” with a livestreamed, interactive YouTube conversation with director and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly (A Strange Loop, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka). On November 9, the free program welcomes playwright Jaclyn Backhaus (Wives, Men on Boats), followed November 16 with author, composer, musician, and performer Heather Christian (Animal Wisdom, Prime). Each seventy-five-minute class is free with advance registration and offers attendees a chance to participate in the discussion. The series has previously featured Will Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning), Clare Barron (Dance Nation), Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Larissa FastHorse (The Thanksgiving Play), and Aleshea Harris (What to Send Up When It Goes Down); those classes can be viewed here. During the pandemic, Playwrights Horizons has also been presenting the podcast Soundstage, with audio works by Robert O’Hara, Qui Nguyen, Lucas Hnath, and others; the second season includes commissions from Eboni Booth, Agnes Borinsky, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, the Debate Society, Sarah Gancher, David Greenspan, Miranda Rose Hall, Dave Harris, Julia Izumi, Kit Yan, and Melissa Li.

LUNA ECLIPSE

The online immersive Luna Eclipse takes the audience through an Upper West Side church and back to the fourteenth century

spit&vigor
The Center at West Park
November 4-8, livestream, $20, 8:00
Prerecorded encores through December 13, $15
www.spitnvigor.com

In May 2018, I saw Linked Dance Theatre’s immersive production Beloved/Departed, which led the audience through virtually every nook and cranny at the West Park Presbyterian Church on Eighty-Sixth St. Now New York City’s spit&vigor company is taking audiences virtually through the church with Luna Eclipse, performed live nightly through November 8, after which you will be able to watch a recorded version on demand through December 13. The ninety-minute show is written and directed by artistic director Sara Fellini, who also has the lead role as Princeton professor Aine Luna, a thirty-something woman embroiled in a creepy mystery that takes her back to the fourteenth century. Early on she explains, “I have a doctorate in phenology, and a special interest in the study of paleobotany, which is the study of life that has come before us — through fossil records and the like. Frankly, and quite bluntly, they tell me that I have lost my mind.”

As the camera travels around the cool spaces, each room with its own unique character, we are introduced to witch Maurice (troupe executive producer Adam Belvo), dancer and activist Babs Lockhart (Caitlin Murphy), Tarot card reader Ida Lunigiana (Christine Kim), nun Sofonisba (Kim), warrior Roland (Nicole Orabona), woman from the past Louisa DeMarco (Clara Kundin), ailing father and husband Lee Doherty (Eamon Murphy), the fortysomething Rebecca Luna (Becca Musser), her overdressed son, Joseph (Pete Oliver), student Heloisia de Lunigiana (Xandra Leigh Parker), an Orange (Kundin), and a serial killer known as the Axeman of New Orleans (Nicholas Thomas). The play is built around ruminations, a series of set pieces that Aine explains “could be an imagined argument, or an internal monologue, or one side of a meaningful conversation. They aren’t necessarily true or real, but they are how the person remembered and ruminated upon them. It’s their perspective.” She also quotes from T. S. Elliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” and shares a story about a canary that is based on actual events experienced by puppeteer Pandora Gastelum. Luna Eclipse is part of spit&vigor’s residency with the Center at West Park; you can also watch the company’s prepandemic production of The Brutes, written by Casey Wimpee, directed by Fellini, and recorded at the historic Players Club, about a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that featured brothers Edwin, Junius Jr. and John Wilkes Booth, here.

LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD: FRED HERSCH

Fred Hersch and Miguel Zenón will perform live fron the Village Vanguard this weekend

Who: Fred Hersch, Miguel Zenón
What: Livestreamed concerts from the Village Vanguard
Where: Village Vanguard online
When: Friday, November 6, and Saturday, November 7, $10, 9:00
Why: Jazz pianist, composer, and educator Fred Hersch is celebrating his sixty-fifth birthday, this past October 21, with the release of the intimate Songs from Home (Palmetto Records, November 6) and two shows at the Village Vanguard, to be streamed live from the legendary club. The Cincinnati-born Hersch will perform solo on November 6, then be joined by multiple Grammy nominee and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone on November 7; tickets for each concert are $10 and will be available for viewing for twenty-four hours. Hersch recorded the album on a laptop in the woods of Pennsylvania during the pandemic; it includes such classics as Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman,” the Beatles’ “When I’m 64,” Frederick Loewe’s “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want,” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude.” In the liner notes he explains, “I hope this selection of songs that mean something to me will bring some warmth to your days and that all of you stay well and walk with peace.” Puerto Rico native Zenón’s latest release is Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera, a tribute to the famed salsa singer.