twi-ny recommended events

IMMEDIATE TRAGEDY

Xin Ying, Lloyd Knight, Lorenzo Pagano, and Leslie Andrea are among the Martha Graham dancers collaborating from their homes on reimagined Immediate Tragedy (photo by Ricki Quinn)

Who: The Soraya, Martha Graham Dance Company, Wild Up
What: World premiere of digital dance
Where: The Soraya Facebook page, Martha Graham Dance Company YouTube channel
When: Friday, June 19, the Soraya, free, 7:00; Saturday, June 20, MGDC YouTube, 2:30
Why: During the pandemic, Martha Graham Dance Company has opened up its vast archives — the troupe was founded in 1926, and Graham created 181 ballets throughout her long, legendary career — presenting fabulous footage of classic recorded works, followed by live discussions with special guests. On June 19, MGDC is taking its next step with the world premiere of a new piece designed specifically for online viewing. Joining forces again with the Soraya, the California-based multidisciplinary performing arts organization, and chamber group Wild Up, the LA-based modern music collective, MGDC will be debuting Immediate Tragedy, a virtual reimagining of Graham’s lost 1937 solo, which was her artistic response to the Spanish Civil War. The ten-minute work will be performed by fourteen dancers (So Young An, Alessio Crognale, Laurel Dalley Smith, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Anne Souder, Leslie Andrea Williams, Xin Ying) and five musicians (Jiji, Richard Valitutto, Jodie Landau, Brian Walsh, Derek Stein) performing from wherever they are sheltering in place, set to a score composed and conducted by Christopher Rountree, the founder, conductor, and creative director of Wild Up.

Rare photograph of Martha Graham performing lost 1937 solo Immediate Tragedy (photo by Robert Fraser, 1937. Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources)

Choreographed by MGDC artistic director Janet Eilber and the dancers based on remnants of the 1937 original, including photos, musical notations, letters, and reviews, the work features digital design and editing by Ricki Quinn as it explores the current tragedies the world is experiencing; it will premiere June 19 at 7:00 on the Soraya’s Facebook page, followed June 20 at 2:30 on MGDC’s YouTube channel as part of the weekly Martha Matinees program, which has previously presented Lamentation, “Birth of the Modern: Martha Graham’s Revolution,” Letter to the World, and more. Each dancer was given four photos from which to develop their movement, while the musicians received snippets of notations from Cowell’s original, all using as inspiration a letter Graham wrote to Cowell in which she explained, “Whether the desperation lies in Spain or in a memory in our own hearts it is the same — I had been in a valley of despair, too. I felt in that dance I was dedicating myself anew to space, that in spite of violation I was upright and that I was going to stay upright at all costs.” Rountree said in a statement, “While the piece is really located in a ‘post Henry Cowell’ space, another big inspiration is: this moment itself, and the immediate tragedy of us all being apart. What are our modes of being together in this moment? What does it look like, what does it sound like and how do we deal with being apart like this?” The thirty-minute program will also include interviews with the collaborators and a screening of Graham and Cowell’s 1937 companion solo, Deep Song.

YES! REFLECTIONS OF MOLLY BLOOM

molly bloom

Who: Aedín Moloney of the Irish Repertory Theatre
What: Livestreamed performances adapted for onscreen viewing
Where: Irish Rep onine (link sent after RSVP)
When: Tuesday, June 16, 7:00; Wednesday, June 17, 3:00 & 8:00; Thursday, June 18, 7:00; Friday, June 19, 8:00; Saturday, June 20, 3:00, advance RSVP required (suggested donation $25)
Why: The Irish Rep has become one of the busiest theater companies in New York City during the pandemic, presenting a brand-new coronavirus-related work and hosting the Meet the Makers and The Show Must Go Online series. On May 27 it premiered The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, Darren Murphy’s short, heartbreaking work about a man (Marty Rea) in Belfast with Covid-19 unable to visit his dying mother (Marie Mullen) in Dublin, who is being cared for by her brother (Seán McGinley). Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, the play gets right to the heart of the crisis as only Irish tales can; it will be available online through October 31.

The Irish Rep now turns its attention to adapting several recent stage productions for the internet, beginning with Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom. The award-winning seventy-five-minute one-woman show, based on James Joyce’s epic Ulysses, was adapted by Aedín Moloney and Colum McCann, directed by Kira Simring, and features music by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains (and Aedín’s father); it originally ran at the company’s home on West Twenty-Second St. in June and July of last year, with Moloney as Molly Bloom in the early morning hours of June 17, 1904, as she considers love, loneliness, and isolation. The full team has now reimagined the play for onscreen viewing, with Aedín Moloney reprising her role; it will be performed live from June 16 — Bloomsday, when Joyce’s iconic tome takes place — through June 20. Admission is free with advance RSVP, with a suggested donation of $25.

The Irish Rep continues its online foray with “Meet the Maker: Frank McCourt . . . And How He Got That Way: A Conversation with Ellen McCourt and Malachy McCourt” on June 18; “Meet the Maker: Conor McPherson” on July 2; a special gala screening with new video of Frank McCourt’s The Irish . . . and How They Got That Way on July 13; “Meet the Makers: John Douglas Thompson and Obi Abili on Breaking Barriers in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones” on July 16; Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, and Amanda Quaid in an online version of Conor McPherson’s The Weir from July 21 to 25; and a virtual version of Barry Day’s Love, Noël, a musical about Noël Coward starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan, from August 11 to 15. I’m exhausted just thinking about it, but I can’t wait to be at my computer to experience the joy of live theater, even if it’s through a screen.

FREE LIVESTREAM BENEFIT READING: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR

government inspector

Who: Red Bull Theater company
What: Benefit reunion reading of The Government Inspector
Where: Red Bull Theater website and Facebook Live
When: Monday, June 15, free (donations accepted), 7:30
Why: Red Bull Theater continues its outstanding online presentations during the pandemic lockdown with a benefit reunion reading of Jeffrey Hatcher’s fab adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector on June 15 at 7:30. “Nikolai Gogol meets the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Monty Python, and the Three Stooges in Red Bull Theater’s latest terrific farce,” I wrote about the show, which ran at the Duke on 42nd St. in June 2017, adding, “It is just the thing to rid us of those fits of melancholy we all experience from time to time, perhaps more often of late.” Well, ain’t that still the truth.

Directed by Jesse Berger, the cast features Michael McGrath as Mayor Anton Antonovich, David Manis as the school principal, Tom Alan Robbins as the judge, Stephen DeRosa as the hospital director, James Rana as the doctor, Arnie Burton as the postmaster, Ryan Garbayo as Bobchinksy, Ben Mehl as Dobchinsky, Mary Testa as Anna Andreyevna, Talene Monahon as Marya, and the inimitable Michael Urie as Ivan Alexandreyevich Hlestakov, with Mary Lou Rosato, Luis Moreno, and Kelly Hutchinson in multiple smaller roles. Red Bull has previously performed unrehearsed live reunion readings of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Thomas Dekker, John Ford, and William Rowley’s The Witch of Edmonton, and Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, so they know what they’re doing. Settle in for what should be a hysterical event; if you miss the live reading, you will still be able to catch it online through June 19, after which it will disappear forever.

VIRTUAL BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY

bloomsday

Who: Rita Wolf, Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, Peter Francis James, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, Dan Stevens, Juliana Canfield, Brenda Castles, Denis O’Hare, Kirsten Vangsness
What: Annual marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Where: Symphony Space YouTube channel
When: Tuesday, June 16, free, 8:00 am
Why: Every June 16 since 1981, Symphony Space has been presenting “Bloomsday on Broadway,” a marathon all-star reading of James Joyce’s iconic 1922 novel, Ulysses, the book each one of us has but very few have finished. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: — Introibo ad altare,” the seven-hundred-plus-page tome begins. The story takes place on June 16, 1904, following Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in a modernist retelling of Homer’s Odyssey.

A coproduction with the Irish Arts Center, “Bloomsday on Broadway” ventures online this year, with the performers reading from wherever they are sheltering in place instead of onstage at 2537 Broadway at Ninety-Fifth St. That turned out to be a bit of a blessing, as the lineup, curated by Jonathan Goldman, is even more impressive than usual: sharing episodes will be Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, and Denis O’Hare, with musical interludes by Brenda Castles, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, and Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow. The event, which is part of “At Home with Irish Arts Center” and Symphony Space’s “Your Home” online programming during the pandemic lockdown, is free and will be streamed on YouTube from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. Below is the full schedule, detailing who will be reading excerpts from each section at which time.

8:00 am
Episode I: Telemachus, by Stephen Colbert

8:45 am
Episode II: Nestor, by Rita Wolf

9:30 am
Episode III: Proteus, by Zach Grenier

10:15 am
Episode IV: Calypso, by Fiona Shaw

10:45 am
“Love’s Old Sweet Song,” by Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely

11:00 am
Episode V: Lotus Eaters, by Peter Francis James

11:45 am
Episode VI: Hades, by Malachy McCourt

12:30 pm
Episode VII: Aeolus by Mia Dillon

1:00 pm
“The Heath Bald/Miller’s Maggot/Calliope House,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow

1:15 pm
Episode VIII: Lestrygonians, by Kate Mulgrew

2:00 pm
Episode IX: Scylla and Charybdis, by Cynthia Nixon

2:45 pm
Episode X: Wandering Rocks, by Hugh Dancy

3:30 pm
Episode XI: Sirens, by Donna Lynne Champlin

4:00 pm
“Porthole of the Kelp,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow

4:15 pm
Episode XII: Cyclops, by Colum McCann

5:00 pm
Episode XIII: Nausicaa, by Claire Danes

5:45 pm
Episode XIV: Oxen of the Sun, by Brian Cox

6:30 pm
Episode XV: Circe, by Dan Stevens

7:15 pm
Episode XVI: Eumaeus, by Juliana Canfield

7:45 pm
“Raglan Road,” by Brenda Castles

8:00 pm
Episode XVII: Ithaca, by Denis O’Hare

8:45 pm
Episode XVIII: Penelope, by Kirsten Vangsness

92Y CONFRONTS HATE: ANNA DEAVERE SMITH IN CONVERSATION WITH EW’s SARAH RODMAN

Anna Deavere Smith and Sarah Rodman will discuss in live 92Y talk

Anna Deavere Smith and Sarah Rodman will discuss hate and inequality in livestreamed 92Y talk

Who: Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Rodman
What: Live discussion about hate and inequality
Where: 92Y YouTube
When: Monday, June 15, free (donations accepted), 7:00
Why: In March 1994, actress, playwright, teacher, and author Anna Deavere Smith wrote and starred in her Tony-nominated one-woman show Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, in which she portrayed dozens of characters to tell the story of the 1992 LA riots after the acquittal of police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. Late last year, the Signature Theatre revived Smith’s Fires in the Mirror, about the 1991 Crown Heights riots following the death of seven-year-old Gavin Cato. (The Signature was scheduled to revive Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 this spring, but it was canceled because of the Covid-19 crisis.) So the Baltimore-born Smith should have a lot to say about what is happening in America when she sits down for a conversation on June 15 at 7:00 with EW’s Sarah Rodman as part of the 92nd St. Y’s Confronting Hate initiative. You can prep for the free event by watching the filmed version of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 on PBS, while Smith’s latest work, Notes from the Field, which explores racial injustice in the school-to-prison pipeline, is available on HBO. “92Y Confronts Hate” began on June 7 with the panel “The Politics of the Pandemic,” followed June 8 with Rabbi Peter Rubinstein and Reverend Jacques Andre DeGraff discussing “Building Bridges: Is it Possible?” and continues June 17 with “Directly from France” with Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur and Rabbi Rubinstein and June 18 with “Praying with Our Hearts, Hands, and Feet,” in which Rabbi Rubinstein will be joined by Imam Al-Hajj Talib ’Abdur-Rashid.

CHERRY ORCHARD FESTIVAL: STATE VS. NATASHA BANINA

state 2

Who: Arlekin Players Theatre
What: Live Zoom interactive theater art experiment
Where: Cherry Orchard Festival Zoom
When: Sunday, June 14, 21, 28, free with RSVP, 8:00
Why: The Cherry Orchard Festival, which has presented such shows as Chekhov’s Ivanov and such films as Elephants Can Play Football here in New York, will be staging a “live Zoom theater art experiment” on June 14, 21, and 28 at 8:00. Reconfiguring its tenth anniversary season, Boston’s Arlekin Players Theatre is going virtual with State vs. Natasha Banina, a new play specially conceived for Zoom, based on Yaroslava Pulinovich’s Natasha’s Dream, a solo work the company put on at the New Rep Theatre in February 2017. The interactive adaptation reunites actress Darya Denisova, director Igor Golyak, choreographer Viktor Plotnikov, and video artist Anton Iakhontov, along with composer Vadim Khrapatchev, as orphan Natasha Banina makes her plea for freedom via a Zoom courtroom where the audience serves as the jury. The show will be performed live on June 14, 21, and 28 at 8:00, followed by a discussion, and attendance is free with advance RSVP.

“In response to the Covid-19 emergency, we had to cancel all live performances scheduled for June 2020 as part of the annual Cherry Orchard Festival, but we still wanted to do something unique for our audiences during these challenging times,” festival executive producer Maria Shclover said in a statement. Golyak added, “During these uncertain times, being artistic and creative are essential, and we are excited about this new theatrical experience. We are creating a new art form to overcome social distancing, the pandemic, and ultimately unite people in one virtual space by merging theater, cinematography, and video games.” Donations will be accepted to support the Actors Fund’s Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

ISRAEL FILM CENTER FESTIVAL CLOSING NIGHT: AULCIE (with live Q&A)

The life and times of Aulcie Perry on and off the court are documented in Israel Film Center Festival closer

Who: Dani Menkin, Nancy Spielberg
What: Closing night of Israel Film Center Festival film screening and live Q&A
Where: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
When: Sunday, June 14, $8, 6:00
Why: The eighth annual Israel Film Center Festival comes to a close June 14 with Dani Menkin’s Aulcie, followed by a live Zoom Q&A with Menkin and producer Nancy Spielberg. Israeli director Menkin followed up his 2016 documentary, On the Map, about Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv’s unlikely victory in the 1976-77 European Champions Cup, with this inside look into the life of one of its stars, Aulcie Perry. After being the last man cut from the New York Knicks in 1976, Newark native Perry was recruited to play for Maccabi in Israel, where the 6-10 black man — an unusual sight in the Land of Milk and Honey — quickly became a superstar, helping the team to championships, falling in love with top model Tami Ben Ami, and hanging out in hot clubs, living the high life. But it all came tumbling down in a haze of drugs, and Menkin traces Perry’s attempt to put it all back together, primarily by finding the daughter he has not seen since she was a baby.

The film is set up as Perry’s confession to that daughter, Cierra Musungay. “I always knew one thing: that I wanted to tell you my story, the way it is, with the good and the bad,” he says at the beginning. “So where do I start? People say you start at the beginning. But I wanted to start at the end, or when I thought the end was coming.” He was inspired to track her down after facing a serious health scare. “I think, that only when I almost died, I started to really live. And that’s when I wanted to find you and, maybe in some ways, find myself,” he adds.

Menkin goes back and forth between archival footage, animation by Assaf Zellner, and interviews with Aulcie’s sister Bernadine Lewis, his friends Wayne Tyre and Roy Young, his ex-girlfriend Juanita Jackson, his son Aulcie Perry Jr., and many men from his Maccabi family, including former teammates Earl Williams and Tal Brody, team president Shimon Mizrahi, co-owner Oudi Recanati, coach Zvi Sherf, and manager Shamluk Maharovsky, who was like a father to him. “In Israel, there wasn’t that much prejudice against black players, and he felt at home here,” NBA commentator Simmy Reguer says. “Aulcie came in like a blessing from the gods,” fellow Jersey native and team captain Brody recalls. And Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff explains, “At Maccabi Tel Aviv, Aulcie Perry was Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rolled into one.”

Now sixty-nine, Perry is honest and forthright throughout, admitting his failings and wanting to make up for lost time. He makes no excuses for his precipitous fall, and he’s not seeking sympathy. He’s a man who made mistakes and wants a chance to set things right. Aulcie is a cautionary tale of redemption with heart and soul, focusing on the need to be part of a family, no matter how different and unexpected it may be.