this week in (live)streaming

LA MaMA MOVES! DANCE FESTIVAL ’22

Tiffany Mills’s Homing kicks off La MaMa festival (photo by Robert Altman)

Who: Tiffany Mills Company, Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Jesse Zaritt, Gerald Casel Dance, Pele Bauch, Marina Celander, Compañía Cuerpo de Indias, Valetango Company, John Scott Dance
What: Seventeenth La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
Where: La MaMa, Ellen Stewart Theatre and the Downstairs Theatre, 66 East Fourth St. between Bowery & Second Aves., and online
When: Thursday – Sunday, April 14 – May 1, $20-$30
Why: Following two iterations in 2021, one online only, one hybrid, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival is back where it belongs at the Ellen Stewart and Downstairs Theatres, highlighting works by nine dance artists and companies Thursday through Sunday through May 1. “This season’s choreographers are working with a myriad of issues: reexamining the meaning of home, researching postmodern dance as a racial construct, and recognizing the essential need for trust in our everyday lives,” curator Nicky Paraiso said in a statement. “These concerns have arisen in a time of crisis, uncertainty, and also reflection, questioning the ways we respond with our bodies, our minds, our hearts. The artists in this season’s festival have taken on these issues in creative, thoughtful, deeply felt ways.” The shows will be available for streaming following the live performances.

The festival kicks off April 14-16 with the world premiere of Tiffany Mills Company’s Homing, part of the troupe’s twentieth anniversary season, performed by Mills, Jordan Morley, Nikolas Owens, Emily Pope, and Mei Yamanaka and set to music by Max Giteck Duykers. April 15-18 sees a twin bill of Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s journey of coming out and reconciliation, Process memoir 7 (Vol. 5): to land somewhere unfelt, and Jesse Zaritt’s No End of Detail (III), a solo show exploring body rituals and Jewish-American identity. The New York premiere of Gerald Casel Dance’s Not About Race Dance takes place April 22-24, performed by Casel, Styles Alexander, Audrey Johnson, Karla Quintero, and Cauveri Suresh, with live sound design by Tim Russell. That same weekend finds a shared evening of two world premieres, Pele Bauch’s A.K.A. Ka Inoa, which examines names and ethnic identity, and Marina Celander’s Stone She: Space Edition, about humanity’s disconnect with nature, with Celander, Asma Feyjinmi, Michaela Lind, and Katja Otero and millstone design by Emma Oppenheimer.

On April 23, Movement Research will host the offsite afternoon symposium “Secret Journey: Stop Calling Them Dangerous #3,” with the unstoppable Yoshiko Chuma and others. The final weekend consists of the US premiere of Compañía Cuerpo de Indias’s Flowers for Kazuo Ohno (and Leonard Cohen), honoring Ohno, one of the creators of Butoh, and folk legend Cohen; the world premiere of Valetango Company’s Confianza (“Trust”), in which Rodney Hamilton, Orlando Reyes Ibarra, Alondra Meek, and Valeria Solomonoff seek transformation; and the US premiere of John Scott Dance’s Cloud Study, performed by Mufutau Yusuf and Magdalena Hylak, set to music by Ryan Vial.

THE EDUCATION OF CORPORAL JOHN MUSGRAVE BOOK EVENT

Who: John Musgrave, Oscar Isaac, Greg Gadson, Ashleigh Byrnes, David Strathairn, Bryan Doerries
What: Book launch of war memoir
Where: Theater of War Productions online
When: Wednesday, April 13, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: Theater of War Productions regularly produces live readings of classic and classical plays, tying them to what is happening in the world today. On April 13 at 7:00, they will be presenting something a little different, a free event built around John Musgrave’s 2021 memoir, The Education of Corporal John Musgrave: Vietnam and Its Aftermath (Knopf, $27, November 2021). Musgrave (Notes to the Man Who Shot Me: Vietnam War Poems) is a permanently disabled war veteran who has been awarded two Purple Hearts and two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry.

He writes in the first chapter: “Service was in my DNA from the very beginning. I was born because of my parents’ service, and I was born to serve. World War II brought my mother and father together, compelling them both to join the effort right after the United States declared war against Japan. My father served as a pilot and my mother as a secretary at a nearby aviation plant, where they first met. So, in a very real way, my older brother, Butch, and I both owe our lives to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My first conscious memory of our nation being at war was forged when I was just three or four years old, around 1951.”

Actors Oscar Isaac, Greg Gadson (a retired colonel), and David Strathairn will read excerpts from the book, along with Musgrave and Ashleigh Byrnes, the deputy national communications director of Disabled American Veterans (DAV). The readings will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A about war and healing; the evening is directed and facilitated by Theater of War artistic director Bryan Doerries.

AN EVENING WITH DAVID MAMET: IN CONVERSATION WITH BARI WEISS

Who: David Mamet, Bari Weiss
What: Livestreamed book discussion
Where: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center online
When: Monday, April 11, free with advance RSVP, 7:00 (with option to purchase book)
Why: “President Trump has been calling out the fake news since he declared he’d run. I’m with him there. In fact, an excellent preparation for dealing with blacklisting (my own) is a career as a playwright. The science of history burgeoned with the invention of movable type; it is now dying through the application of ink eradicator known as ‘the media.’ Soon it will be no more.”

So writes David Mamet in his latest book, Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch (HarperCollins, $28.99, April 2022), in which he pulls no punches about the sorry state of our world. In such chapters as “The Fountain Pen,” “Cause and Effect,” “Reds, Pinks, and Goo-Goos,” and “What’s in a Name,” Mamet delves into religion, politics, the social contract, and his personal life, unpredictably skewering all sides as only he can. For more than fifty years, the Chicago-born Pulitzer Prize winner has been challenging us in such plays as American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, and Oleanna, such films as House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, Things Change, and State and Main, and such books as Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business; The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture; and The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Jewish Self-hatred, and the Jews.

He will be launching Recessional with a free livestreamed event on April 11 hosted by the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, moderated by Bari Weiss, the journalist and author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism and The New Seven Dirty Words who famously resigned from the New York Times, explaining, “The lessons that ought to have followed the election — lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society — have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.” Get ready for a lively conversation that is likely to both enlighten and infuriate but never bore you.

AMANDA SELWYN DANCE THEATRE: THREADS

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre presents world premiere of Threads at New York Live Arts this week (photo by Maria Baranova)

Who: Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre
What: World premiere of Threads
Where: New York Live Arts, 219 West Nineteenth St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves., and online
When: April 7-9, $15-$30, 7:30 (livestream $20)
Why: Since 2000, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has been staging works that explore what makes us human, the connections between people and nature, performer and audience, and humanity itself. The New York–based company will be presenting the world premiere of its latest evening-length piece, Threads, April 7-9 at New York Live Arts, looking at how we have dealt psychologically, emotionally, and physically with the last two years. “Threads explores what holds us together in isolation and the practice of letting go,” Selwyn said in a statement. “This pandemic has brought into focus where priorities are, the value of our human connections, and the very fleeting nature of it all. We are just a moment away from change. The threads can be fixed, torn, mended, or woven. . . . This is a story of heartbreak, forgiveness, loss, new beginnings, agency, and powerlessness.”

The work features set and costumes by Anna-Alisa Belous, lighting by Dan Ozminkowski, and sound by Joel Wilhelmi; it will be performed by Torrey Harada, Manon Hallay, Misaki Hayama, David Hochberg, Isaac Kerr, Minseon Kim, Ashley McQueen, Michael Miles, Oscar Antonio Rodriguez, Lauren Russo, John Trunfio, and Evita Zacharioglou. If you can’t make it to the Chelsea theater, the shows will also be livestreamed here.

“It starts as a thread of an idea and, from that thread, a fabric of meaning emerges,” Selwyn (Hindsight, Crossroads, Renewal) continues. “One thread at a time. By listening, pulling, teasing, tearing at each piece. Showing up in it. We can only see when our minds, eyes, and hearts are open. We can only see when we are ready. When we aren’t looking. In this pause, we step forward and balance on a thread to discover divine beauty. We measure risk, we acknowledge what is gone, we let go.”

LIVE FROM THE WOODY GUTHRIE CENTER: OKLAHOMA SINGS WOODY!

Who: Branjae, John Fullbright, David Amram, Red Dirt Rangers, Deana McCloud
What: Livestreamed concert from the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa
Where: Morgan Library & Museum online
When: Wednesday, April 6, free, 7:00
Why: The Morgan Library exhibition “Woody Guthrie: People Are the Song” takes visitors on a deep dive into the life and career of Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie, the folk music legend who fought for everyday Americans through his staunch activism and protest songs. The outstanding show, continuing through May 22, features hundreds of items, from Woody’s instruments, records, letters, and notebooks to photographs, postcards, lyrics, and artworks, including a rare painting. The audioguide is narrated by country folk rock troubadour Steve Earle and features snippets of songs and archival interviews with Guthrie. Talking about moving to the West Coast, Guthrie says, “They called us ‘dust bowl refugees.’ But then there’s more than one kind of a refugee. There’s refugees that take refuge under railroad bridges, and there is refugees that take refugee and . . . take refuge in public office. But when we was out in California, all that the native sons and daughters called us was just ‘dust bowl refugees.’”

Guthrie, who was born in the small town of Okemah on July 14, 1912, and died of Huntington’s disease on October 3, 1967, in Coney Island, left behind a legacy that reaches around the world, impacting such musicians as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Wilco, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, and so many others. On April 6 at 7:00, the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa will present the live concert “Oklahoma Sings Woody!,” with performances by Branjae, John Fullbright, David Amram, and Red Dirt Rangers, playing three songs each, their own as well as Woody’s. While the in-person show is sold out, the event will be livestreamed for free by the Morgan, supplemented with a brief virtual tour of the center by founding executive director and chief curator Deana McCloud. Throughout his too-short career, Guthrie revealed the power that music can have on politics and the populace; as he famously carved into a guitar, “This machine kills fascists.” Yes, people are the song.

ReelAbilities FILM FESTIVAL: NEW YORK 2022

Who: ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York
What: Annual festival of films celebrating stories of people with disabilities
Where: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and other venues as well as online
When: April 7-13, free – $15
Why: Since 2007, the ReelAbilities Film Festival has been showcasing shorts, features, and animated works from around the world to continue its mission “dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with disabilities.” The fourteenth annual event takes place at the host venue, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, as well as Lincoln Center, the IAC Building, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Maysles Documentary Center, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and online. The opening-night selection is Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s The Specials, about caregivers of autistic youths in underprivileged areas, starring Vincent Cassel, Reda Kateb, and Hélène Vincent; Victor Calise, former commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, will be the guest honoree. The closing-night film is Brian Malone and Regan Linton’s imperfect, about a theater group staging Chicago; the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the directors moderated by actor Gregg Mozgala and the presentation of the ReelAbilities Spotlight Award to deaf actress Lauren Ridloff.

Among the other full-length films are Marc Schiller’s deeply personal No Bone: Scars of Survival, Jim Bernfield’s Me to Play, Margaret Byrne’s Any Given Day, Lynn Montgomery’s Amazing Grace, Teemu Nikki’s The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Linda Niccol’s Poppy, and Jack Youngelson’s Here. Is. Better.; the films deal with such issues as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, mental illness, Acute Flaccid Myelitis, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome, deafness, ADHD, and PTSD. In addition, there will be workshops on film puppetry and storytelling, an accessibility summit, a solo musical by Anita Hollander, a conversation with Deaf Utopia author Nyle DiMarco, the panel discussion “Just Do It?: The Impact of Perfectionism & Productivity on Mental Health and Disability,” and such shorts programs as “Out of the Box,” “Relationships,” and “Autism.” Many of the screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, actors, documentary subjects, and health experts.

THE FOLKS AT HOME: A BALTIMORE SITCOM

Baltimore Center Stage world premiere of R. Eric Thomas’s The Folks at Home will be livestreamed April 6-10 (photo by J Fannon)

Who: Baltimore Center Stage
What: Hybrid production of R. Eric Thomas play
Where: Baltimore Center Stage online
When: April 6-10, $30
Why: During the pandemic lockdown, I watched hundreds of plays from around the world online; one of my favorite discoveries was Baltimore Center Stage, which presented such shows as The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks and Curls and The Garden, filmed in the company’s theater and broadcast virtually. Founded in 1963 and located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District since 1975, BCS is currently staging the world premiere of R. Eric Thomas’s comedy The Folks at Home, a 1970s-sitcom-style work about an interracial couple facing various problems, from money and parents to a possible ghost. While it might seem autobiographical, Thomas, who now lives in Baltimore, wrote in 2017, “Okay, first of all, this play is not my life. So, yes, it’s about an interracial gay couple and I am one-half of an interracial gay couple. And yes, it takes place in South Philly, where I also live. But in The Folks at Home, the central couple, Brandon and Roger, own their house, whereas I rent. So there.”

Directed by Obie winner Stevie Walker-Webb (one in two, Ain’t No Mo’), the play stars Alexis Bronkovic, Brandon E. Burton, E. Faye Butler, Jane Kaczmarek, Eugene Lee, and Christopher Sears. Thomas has previously written the national bestseller Here for It, or, How to Save Your Soul in America as well as such plays as Backing Track, Crying on Television, and Mrs. Harrison and episodes of the television series Dickinson and Better Things; Bronkovic, Butler, Lee, and Sears have appeared on many TV series, while seven-time Emmy nominee Kaczmarek has starred on such shows as Malcolm in the Middle, Felicity, Equal Justice, and The Paper Chase. Five of the performances of The Folks at Home — which, of course, has its own theme song — will be livestreamed from April 6 to 10, with a Q&A following the April 7 show.