this week in (live)streaming

JODY SPERLING / TIME LAPSE DANCE: SINGLE USE

Jody Sperling dances on the Upper West Side in plastic bags in Single Use

Who: Jody Sperling, Jennifer Congdon
What: World premiere livestream from Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance
Where: Time Lapse Dance YouTube channel and Zoom
When: Wednesday, July 22, free with RSVP for Zoom talkback, 7:00
Why: Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance has been celebrating its twentieth anniversary season over twenty weeks during the pandemic, with online repertory works and new dances that you can view on its YouTube channel, including Turbulence, Book of Clouds, Wind Rose, and the quarantine dance Plastic Virus. Sperling continues the environmental theme with Single Use, which premieres on July 22 at 7:00. The nine-minute film is choreographed, performed, and edited by Sperling, with cinematography by Angela Hunter, costume by Lauren Gaston, and music by Matthew Burtner. As Single Use begins, Sperling, wearing a mask and gloves, is standing outside the Urban Outfitters store at Broadway and One Hundredth St.; signs in the window announce that March 20 was its last day in business. Sperling then drapes herself in plastic bags from numerous retail stores and dances around the neighborhood, embracing poles and hopping atop barriers, the swishing of the plastic bags in the wind accompanying her, along with the natural sounds of a nearly empty city. She looks like a homeless person or some lost plastic creature, seeking solace somewhere while taking risks and lamenting what we’ve done to the world.

The livestream will be followed by a Zoom talkback with Sperling and Jennifer Congdon, the development director of Beyond Plastics, a Bennington College-based organization whose “mission is to end plastic pollution by being a catalyst for change at every level of our society. We use our deep policy and advocacy expertise to build a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet, and ourselves, from the plastic pollution crisis.” Single Use will have you thinking not only about recycling but about how we can rejuvenate and revitalize New York City and the country in these challenging times. Time Lapse Dance’s twentieth anniversary continues July 29 with the online release of another new short film, along with a live chat, July 30 with an ecokinetics workshop, and August 6 with the online premiere of Ice Cycle, followed by a conversation with Sperling and Burtner.

VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH EVENT: RAPHAEL MONTAÑEZ ORTIZ

El Museo del Barrio will celebrate the publication of Raphael Montañez Ortiz’s first monograph on July 22

Who: Javier Rivero Ramos, Chon Noriega, Kevin Hatch, Ana Perry, Marcos Dimas, Pedro Reyes, Juan Sanchez
What: Virtual book launch of Raphael Montañez Ortiz monograph with conversation and live Q&A
Where: El Museo en Tu Casa Zoom
When: Wednesday, July 22, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: In 1969, Brooklyn-born artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz founded and became the first director of El Museo del Barrio. “The cultural disenfranchisement I experience as a Puerto Rican has prompted me to seek a practical alternative to the orthodox museum, which fails to meet my needs for an authentic ethnic experience. To afford me and others the opportunity to establish living connections with my own culture, I founded El Museo del Barrio,” he said. In 2014, El Museo honored Ortiz with the exhibition “Museum Starter Kit: Open with Care”; on July 22, they’ll pay tribute to the eighty-six-year-old Nuyorican multidisciplinary deconstructionist with a virtual launch party for his first monograph, featuring a live conversation on Zoom, followed by a Q&A; among the participants are monograph editor Javier Rivero Ramos, contributors Chon Noriega, Kevin Hatch, and Ana Perry, and artists Marcos Dimas, Pedro Reyes, and Juan Sanchez.

“One of the most radical creators and pioneers of his generation, Raphael Montañez Ortiz offers El Museo del Barrio an opportunity to push the boundaries of identities, showcase moments of harmony and tension in our lived history as a museum, and challenge and expand limited visual art narratives. Entropy speaks about the need for transformation, about the irreversible changes that are generated within complex systems. This spirit is evidenced in El Museo del Barrio today and for years to come,” El Museo executive director Patrick Charpenel said in a statement. Ramos added, “For far too long, canonical art history devoted to American art of the second half of the twentieth century neglected one of its most innovative artists. Premised on the Eurocentric myth of the homo faber, it failed to comprehend the trailblazing character of Raphael Montañez Ortiz and his lifelong endeavor to harness the human condition’s primal energies. At once a painter, performance artist, sculptor, filmmaker, teacher, community organizer, and writer, the work of Raphael Montañez Ortiz defies disciplinary categorization. This publication offers for the first time a panoramic view of a prolific career spanning more than six decades.”

TOMORROW WILL BE SUNDAY (working title) READING AND Q&A

working title

Who: Heather Raffo, Jenny Koons, Bill Buell, Laura Crotte, Carol Halstead, Mia Katigbak, CTC 2020 conservatory members
What: Online workshop reading of new play with Q&A
Where: CHQ Virtual Porch On Demand
When: Wednesday, July 22, free with RSVP (donations encouraged), 8:15
Why: During the pandemic, Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York State has been hosting virtual events via its CHQ Virtual Porch hub, including the “Cocktails, Concerts & Conversations” series with members of Chautauqua Opera Company and Chautauqua Dance, master classes, lectures, and music recitals. On July 22 at 8:15, Chautauqua Theater Company will present a virtual reading of Tomorrow Will Be Sunday, a new play by Heather Raffo (Palace of the End, 9 Parts of Desire), directed by Jenny Koons (A Sucker Emcee, Queen of the Night). Performed by Bill Buell, Laura Crotte, Carol Halstead, Mia Katigbak, and members of the CTC 2020 conservatory, the play (with a working title) is a thriller that explores migration and the global economy. The reading will be followed by a live Q&A.

THE TENTH ANNUAL SHORT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL: PRIVATE LIVES

short new play festival

Who: Ali Ahn, Frankie J. Alvarez, Kathleen Chalfant, Lilli Cooper, Edmund Donovan, William Jackson Harper, Louisa Jacobson, Peter Francis James, Charlayne Woodard
What: Tenth annual Short New Play Festival
Where: Red Bull Live
When: Monday, July 20, free (donations accepted), 7:30 (stream can be viewed for four days)
Why: Theaters are traditionally dark on Mondays, but Red Bull has turned that night into must-see virtual evenings, with high-quality live reunion readings (The Government Inspector, Coriolanus, The Witch of Edmonton) and RemarkaBULL Podversations, in which actors (Chukwudi Iwuji, Elizabeth Marvel, Stephen Spinella, Kate Burton, Michael Urie) recite famous Shakespeare soliloquies and then discuss them. Next up is the tenth annual Short New Play Festival, which is also going virtual as a benefit fundraiser. The theme this year is, appropriately enough, “Private Lives,” inspired by Noël Coward’s 1930 comedy of manners, since we are all living rather private lives these days during the pandemic lockdown. The festival will be livestreamed on July 20 at 7:30, featuring new commissions by established playwrights Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play, Daddy), who will premiere Fear and Misery of the Master Race (of the Brecht), and Theresa Rebeck (Seared, Seminar), who will present Something in the Ground, in addition to new work by emerging playwrights chosen through an open submission process: Ben Beckley’s Outside Time, without Extension, Avery Deutsch’s Old Beggar Women, Leah Maddrie’s Love — Adjacent, or Balcony Plays, Jessica Moss’s In the Attic, Matthew Park’s Plague Year, and Mallory Jane Weiss’s Evermore Unrest. As you can tell by the titles, the impact of the coronavirus crisis is likely to figure prominently. The outstanding cast consists of Ali Ahn, Frankie J. Alvarez, Kathleen Chalfant, Lilli Cooper, Edmund Donovan, William Jackson Harper, Louisa Jacobson, Peter Francis James, and Charlayne Woodard, with direction by Vivienne Benesch, Mêlisa Annis, and Em Weinstein.

CARMEN ARGOTE’S LAST LIGHT SCREENING AND Q&A

Carmen Argote goes for a haunting walk in new short film Last Light

Who: Carmen Argote, Erin Christovale
What: Livestream premiere and live Q&A
Where: The Hammer Museum at UCLA
When: Tuesday, July 21, free with RSVP, 9:00 EDT
Why: Mexican-born, LA-based multidisciplinary artist Carmen Argote was scheduled to open her latest exhibition, “Hand Dog Glove,” at Clockshop in Los Angeles, but the Covid-19 pandemic has put that on hold. In the interim, Argote, the gallery, and the Hammer Museum at UCLA have teamed up to present the livestream premiere of Argote’s haunting twelve-minute film, Last Light, which she started making just before the lockdown and continued during the crisis. “Is this fear so paralyzing?” she asks as she walks through the emptying streets of her city, considering ideas of loneliness, childhood, and demolition. “I feel like I’m not made to last; I’m not the one who’s gonna make it.” Argote, who was hospitalized early in the crisis for a non-cornonavirus-related illness, takes walks as part of her discipline. In her artist statement she explains, “I explore notions of home and place. I respond to architecture and site to reflect on personal histories and on my own immigrant experience. My practice uses the act of inhabiting as a starting point, working within a space and its cultural, economic, and personal context as a material. I work at a human scale and in relationship to how my body inhabits space.” The premiere will be livestreamed on July 21 at 9:00, followed by a Q&A with Argote and Hammer associate curator Erin Christovale. (Click on the above photo to watch the trailer.)

#IRISHREPONLINE: THE WEIR

Who: Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, Amanda Quaid
What: Live online performance
Where: Irish Rep online
When: July 21-25, free with advance RSVP (suggested donation $25),
Why: One of Irish Repertory Theatre’s most popular recent productions is Conor McPherson’s ghostly The Weir. The work debuted in England in 1997 and on Broadway two years later; Irish Rep first staged it in 2013 and again in 2015 by popular demand. The company is now bringing it back for an online version running July 21-25, following the success of its livestreamed adaptation of Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom and the new short pandemic-related tale The Gifts You Gave to the Dark. The six live performances reunite three members of the original Irish Rep production, Sean Gormley as Finbar, John Keating as Jim, and Dan Butler as Jack, with Tim Ruddy as Brendan and Amanda Quaid as Valerie. The show is directed by Irish Rep cofounder Ciarán O’Reilly. McPherson is an Irish Rep institution; the company has also staged Dublin Carol, St. Nicholas, Port Authority, Shining City, and The Seafarer. Irish Rep has done exceptional work during the pandemic; don’t miss what should be a thrilling show.

THE JOYCE THEATER: DANCING DIALOGUES

dancing dialogues

Who: Joyce Theater
What: Online discussions about dance during the coronavirus crisis
Where: Joyce online
When: Monday, July 20 & 27 and August 10, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: On July 20, the Joyce Theater is kicking off an exciting live panel series, “Dancing Dialogues,” which gathers together dance makers and artists in interactive online discussions about dance and the state of the world during the pandemic lockdown. On July 20 at 6:00, “Realized Cultural Resonance” features Ronald K. Brown, Rosie Herrera, Emily Johnson, Virginia Johnson, and Michael Sakamoto with moderator Phil Chan. On July 27, “Reinvention: The Art of Pivot” consists of Patricia Delgado, Francesca Harper, and Vernon Scott with moderator Adrian Danchig-Waring. And on August 10, “Rebuilding Dance Audiences: Virtual to Actual” will delve into how performing arts organization are handling the crisis. Admission is free with advance RSVP, but donations are encouraged. In addition, you should check out JoyceStream, where you can see A.I.M’s Meditation: A Silent Prayer and Olivier Tarpaga’s Declassified Memory Fragment for a limited time, with Shantala Shivalingappa’s Bhairava and Urban Bush Women’s Women’s Resistance up next.