Who: Trip Cullman, Diep Tran, Jeremy Tiang, Catherine Coray, more What:PlayClub live discussion Where: Zoom meeting (link sent to participants) When: Thursdays at 5:00, free but RSVP required (space is very limited) Why: During the coronavirus crisis and shutdown, Obie-winning, New York City-based Play Company, aka PlayCo, has started #Playfrom6FeetAway, a super-cool initiative in which a limited number of participants read a play in advance, then have a live online discussion hosted by a special guest. It might not be a replacement for the experience of live theater, but it is a great way to keep creators and play lovers connected. The series kicked off on April 23 with Nina Raine’s Consent, hosted by director Trip Cullman. On April 30, journalist Diep Tran will lead an examination of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die, a play that I’ve seen twice, most recently in a rousing production at Second Stage. The program continues May 7 with Wei Yu-Chia’s A Fable for Now, hosted by the play’s translator, Jeremy Tiang, and May 14 with Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (the New York premiere was scheduled to begin previews March 27 at Playwrights Horizons), moderated by NYU Arts professor Catherine Coray of the Lark Play Development Center US/Middle East Playwright Exchange. The Zoom rooms are limited to a mere ten people, so keep watching PlayCo for further announcements and to snatch a coveted spot.
Who:Nicca Ray,Chris Desjardins,Peter Carlaftes What: Virtual book launch with reading and conversation Where:Three Rooms PressFacebook and YouTube When: Wednesday, April 29, free, 8:00 Why: Born in Wisconsin in 1911, Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr. would go on to change Hollywood as Nicholas Ray, a genre-redefining auteur who directed such films as They Live by Night, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, Rebel without a Cause, Bigger Than Life, and King of Kings. A controversial figure who had drug and alcohol problems and was married four times, including a short-lived, tempestuous union with Gloria Grahame, Ray had four children, including Nicca Ray, who was born in 1964; her mother was dancer Betty Utley, who divorced Ray that same year. Ray would not play a part in Nicca’s life for another decade before passing away in 1979. Nicca takes a unique look at who her father was, especially during those missing ten years, in her thoroughly researched memoir/biography, Ray by Ray: A Daughter’s Take on the Legend of Nicholas Ray (Three Rooms Press, April 2020, $20). On April 29 at 8:00, Three Rooms Press cofounder Peter Carlaftes will host a live virtual book launch on Three Rooms Press’s Facebook and YouTube pages, featuring a reading by Nicca, followed by a conversation between Nicca and punk rocker, poet, actor, director, Upsetter Records cofounder, and Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen band member Chris (Chris D.) Desjardins, discussing Nicholas Ray’s films, punk rock, creativity without drugs, and more.
Who:Chuck Palahniuk What: Online book launch of Fight Club 3 (Premiere Collections, April 2020, $40 with autographed bookplate) Where:Facebook When: Wednesday, April 29, free, 5:00 Why: Washington native Chuck Palahniuk’s book launches are legendary, filled with cult fanatics who come dressed as characters from his novels, ready to answer trivia questions to win such items as signed body parts. The author of such highly original and strange books as Invisible Monsters, Choke, Lullaby, Diary, Rant, Snuff, Adjustment Day, and the forthcoming The Invention of Sound in addition to the memoir Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different, Palahniuk is most well known for his 1996 novel, Fight Club, which was turned into a successful 1999 film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, and Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer. Palahniuk has been expanding the story over the last five years as a comic-book series and graphic novel with artists Cameron Stewart, David Mckaig, Nate Piekos, and David Mack. Fight Club 2 came out in hardcover in 2016, and Fight Club 3 was just released April 14; Palahniuk, who participated in a brief twi-ny talk ten years ago, will be launching the book, which focuses on Marla, on his Facebook page on April 29 at 5:00. You can expect the unusual from Palahniuk, who always delivers. And be sure to follow the rules of Fight Club, because you know what happens if you don’t.
Who:Arlen Schumer What: Live webinar about the legacy of The Twilight Zone Where: Online link emailed with registration through New York Adventure Club When: Wednesday, April 29, $10, 8:00 Why: I am a full-fledged member of the Twilight Zone cult. I’ve been watching the show since I was in single digits, which probably explains a lot. Now I check it out every night on MeTV, belong to a private TZ Facebook group, and look forward to settling in for the annual holiday marathons. On April 29 at 8:00, writer, illustrator, and TZ scholar Arlen Schumer, who posts regularly in the group and is the author of the seminal book Visions from the Twilight Zone, will host the live webinar “The Twilight Zone: Ahead of Its Time.” Registration for the “visualecture,” hosted by New York Adventure Club, is $10, with limited spaces. The talk and Q&A will focus on TZ in the age of coronavirus, working off the debut episode, “Where Is Everybody?,” in which Earl Holliman plays a man seemingly alone in the world. In the 1959 episode, written by creator and genius Rod Serling, an army doctor explains, “We can feed the stomach with concentrates. We can supply microfilm for reading, recreation, even movies of a sort. We can pump oxygen in and waste material out. But there’s one thing we can’t simulate that’s a very basic need: Man’s hunger for companionship. The barrier of loneliness. That’s one thing we haven’t licked yet.” The five-year series has dozens of prescient episodes that seemingly predicted sociocultural aspects of computerization, militarization, contagion, fascism, racism, romance, medicine, the space race, and, yes, solitude. Schumer will also explore other key episodes and the roster of high-level guest stars. Register now for this virtual journey into another dimension.
Who: Marisa Tomei, Oscar Isaac, Patrick Breen What: Livestreamed benefit play reading for MCC Theater Where:MCC Theater YouTube When: Tuesday, April 28, $25, 7:30; rebroadcast January 28, $5-$100, 7:30 (available through January 31) Why:[ed. note: The below originally ran on April 26; MCC is now bringing the reading back for an encore presentation] Theaters in lockdown are coming up with unique ways to engage their audience and raise much-needed funds. MCC Theater, which opened its sparkling new Hell’s Kitchen space last year, has just announced the online initiative MCC Virtual Events, which will feature a weekly play-reading series and other online gatherings as part of its Be Our Light campaign. The program’s centerpiece takes place on April 28 at 7:30, an MCC Virtual TV benefit reading of Alan Bowne’s 1987 Beirut, about a woman quarantined on the Lower East Side with an STD in a dystopian future. The original production kicked off MCC’s one-act play festival; it will be performed live online by Marisa Tomei and Oscar Isaac, with a cameo by Patrick Breen. “A few weeks ago, as our shared experience of the new ‘normal’ sunk in, isolated from loved ones, I couldn’t stop thinking about Alan Bowne’s moving and prescient play,” Tomei said in a statement. “Creating the role of Blue in 1987 for MCC’s one-act festival was an experience that I’ve long treasured at a time that felt like MCC and I were both ‘being born.’ There are obvious parallels between the ‘plague’ in the play and the situation we are experiencing now.” In a later Facebook post, Tomei added, “A response to the AIDS crisis, poetically and hilariously written by the late Alan Bowne . . . it’s the second play I ever appeared in on the New York stage. It’s raunchy and my parents fled the theater when they came to see it lol. . . . Maybe this piece of writing helps us process some feelings.” The early-bird $5 and $15 tickets are sold out, but you can still catch the show for $25. On May 13, MCC Virtual Events will launch Live Labs: One Acts, weekly readings on Wednesdays at 5:00 that will feature works by such playwrights as Robert Askins, Aziza Barnes, Peter Hedges, C. A. Johnson, Matthew Lopez, and Talene Monahon. MCC will also host the free panel discussion “Creative in Quarantine — Finding Inspiration in Isolation” on April 30 at 11:00 and a Let’s Engage open-mic night on May 7 at 8:00.
A parade of Broadway stars will celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s ninetieth birthday Sunday night on YouTube
Who: Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Christine Baranski, Donna Murphy, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Tveit, Maria Friedman, Iain Armitage, Katrina Lenk, Michael Cerveris, Brandon Uranowitz, Stephen Schwartz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani, Melissa Errico, Ann Harada, Austin Ku, Kelvin Moon Loh Thom Sesma, Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Beanie Feldstein, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Kuhn, Linda Lavin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Randy Rainbow, Lea Salonga, Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason, Nathan Lane, Steven Spielberg, Raúl Esparza What: Live online celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s ninetieth birthday Where:Broadway.com YouTube channel When: Sunday, April 26, free, 8:00 Why: Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born in New York City on March 22, 1930. Over his long career, the Oscar, Tony, and Grammy winner has written the music and lyrics for such shows as West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and many others. A much-lauded revival of Company was set to hit Broadway on March 22, joining a revival of West Side Story, but both shows were closed down when Broadway went dark March 12 because of the coronavirus. But an all-star lineup will be paying tribute to Sondheim from their homes with “Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration,” a gala event being held on April 26 at 8:00. Sponsored by Broadway.com, the party will be streamed live on YouTube for free, but watchers are encouraged to donate to ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), an NYC Service organization that seeks to “unite New Yorkers in service to advance lifelong civic engagement for a more equitable and inclusive city.” Above is the remarkable guest list of performers and well-wishers; the evening will be hosted by Tony winner Raúl Esparza, a veteran of Sunday in the Park with George and Company. Sondheim might be ninety, but we got used to seeing him all the time at the theater, as an audience member. Sunday night he’ll take center stage, where he belongs.
Rosalind Chao lights up the screen in Nancy Kelly’s long-forgotten 1990 Western melodrama Thousand Pieces of Gold, which has been revived in a beautiful 4K restoration from IndieCollect, which begins its virtual release this weekend through BAM in New York and the Autry Museum in LA. Adapted by Anne Makepeace from Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s 1981 historical novel, the feminist epic is set in 1880, when Lalu (Chao), born in a tiny village in northern China, is sold by her father into slavery, winding up in a small mining town in Idaho. Her owner, Hong King (Michael Paul Chan), is a prominent gambler who runs the local brothel and has plans to exploit Lalu, renamed China Polly, as an exotic prostitute well worth higher prices.
But Lalu, strong-willed and determined, refuses to give in, fighting the seemingly inevitable fate of joining Berthe (Beth Broderick) and the other whores. The only people on her side are Jim (Dennis Dun), a Chinese man who transported her from San Francisco to Idaho and regrets his role in the deal, and Charlie (Chris Cooper), who runs the saloon and finds an aching humanity in Lalu; he stands up for her when such lowdown and dirty men as Jonas (Jimmie F. Skaggs), Miles (Will Oldham), and Ohio (David Hayward) either line up to be with her or look the other way when she is abused. Every time Lalu, a smart, brave woman who picks up English quickly, thinks she has found a way out, circumstances beyond her control keep her trapped in her horrific situation, one that she refuses to accept.
Hong King (Michael Paul Chan) and Charlie (Chris Cooper) argue over a Chinese woman’s freedom in epic feminist Western
Watching the film today, it’s hard to imagine that it’s Kelly’s only fiction movie; she continues to make documentaries, which have included A Cowhand’s Song, Rebels with a Cause, Trust: Second Acts in Young Lives, and Smitten, but the Hollywood system did not welcome her, much like Lalu was not welcomed in America. Kelly is in full command of the story, which is gorgeously photographed by Bobby Bukowski and keenly edited by Kenji Yamamoto, Kelly’s husband and longtime filmmaking partner, along with a vivid score by seven-time Emmy winner Gary Malkin. The camera loves Chao (Joy Luck Club, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine): Her deeply expressive eyes dominate the screen and envelop the viewer in heartfelt emotion. Oscar winner Cooper (Seabiscuit, Adaptation.) is tender and warm as Charlie, channeling Jon Bon Jovi along the way.
Based on the true story of Chinese pioneer Lalu Nathoy, Thousand Pieces of Gold has been rereleased at just the right time — the digital restoration debuted in March 2019 at the Museum of the Moving Image — as it relates to such current hot-button issues as the #metoo movement, immigration, racism aimed specifically at the Chinese, human trafficking, and economic inequality. On April 29 at 8:00, there will be what should be a fascinating live panel discussion with Kelly, Yamamoto, Makepeace, Chao, and Cooper.
