Who: Jordan Klepper, Fred Armisen, Maura Tierney, Thomas Sadoski, Arian Moayed, Annie McNamara, April Matthis, Vin Knight, Young Jean Lee, Joel Perez, Yo La Tengo What: Virtual gala Where:Elevator Repair Service online When: Wednesday, June 23, $25-$500, 7:30 (private virtual cocktail reception at 7:00 for donors of $2,500+) Why: During the Trump era, comedian Jordan Klepper has been one of the funniest, move insightful television journalists around, in his “Fingers the Pulse” segments on The Daily Show, in which he fearlessly goes straight into the heart of the MAGAverse, speaking with Trumpists who are not in on the joke. He has also hosted his own satirical series, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, as well as the influential special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns. On June 23 at 7:30, the Michigan-born Klepper, a former member of the Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade, will be hosting The Tonight Zoom with Jordan Klepper A Celebration of Live Theatre (remotely) (and partially pre-taped), a virtual gala benefiting New York City experimental theater stalwarts Elevator Repair Service.
Founded in 1991 by artistic director John Collins, ERS has developed a unique theatrical language over its thirty years, presenting collaborative works that often reimagine literary classics into something new and unpredictable at such venues as the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, the New York Public Library, and PS122. Among their shows are Marx Brothers on Horseback Salad,The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928),Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf,The Select (The Sun Also Rises),Measure for Measure, and their widely acclaimed Gatz, an eight-hour adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
At the virtual gala, Klepper will interview ERS company members Vin Knight, April Matthis, and Annie McNamara as characters they have portrayed in the troupe’s productions; there will also be appearances by Fred Armisen, Maura Tierney, Thomas Sadoski, Arian Moayed, Young Jean Lee, Joel Perez, and Yo La Tengo. It might be called “a celebration of live theatre,” but, in true Klepper/ERS style, they are pointing out that it will take place remotely, with some prerecorded segments. Tickets start at $25 and go up to $10,000 for the Gold Virtual Table, which includes a preshow cocktail reception for twelve people, tickets to ERS’s upcoming adaptation of The Seagull at the Skirball Center, and select merchandise.
A few minutes into Woolly Mammoth’s stream of Heather Christian’s pandemic-filmed Animal Wisdom, I grew terribly upset with myself: How in the world did I miss this remarkable show when it premiered at the Bushwick Starr in 2017?
Extended on demand through June 27, this new iteration of Animal Wisdom is an intimate and rapturous confessional of music and storytelling, an ingenious journey into the personal and communal nature of ritual and superstition, of grief and loss, of ghosts and, most intently, the fear of death. Presented by DC’s Woolly Mammoth and San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, the 135-minute show is a movie/theater/concert hybrid and a melding of public séance and stirring revival meeting, with film direction by Amber McGinnis and stage direction by Emilyn Kowaleski. They create a unique and special experience that the audience can feel a part of even though they are at home watching a recording, which is especially enhanced if they follow Christian’s request that each viewer gather four elements so they can participate in the proceedings.
“This performance was never supposed to happen on film,” Christian says directly into the camera early on. “I guess that’s obvious. But contrary to what it looks like, it wasn’t supposed to happen in a theater either. It was supposed to happen in a defunct church or holy space, but houses of any kind are deconsecrated and reconsecrated all the time, so I guess we’re not so far off. Anyways, maybe at least yours is already haunted.”
Animal Wisdom was filmed onstage at DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Singer-songwriter and pianist Christian is joined by her band, guitarist and cellist Sasha Brown, bassists Fred Epstein and B. E. Farrow, percussionist Eric Farber, and violinist Maya Sharpe, as she travels back to her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, sharing tales about her deceased grandparents amid original songs that range from country and blues to folk and gospel, with such titles as “Well Made Fish,” “Wild Thing’s Daughter,” “Dies Irae” (“Day of Wrath”), and “Libera Me,” eschewing conventional hook-laden sing-along pop and standard theatrical orchestrations. She makes regular comparisons between her relatives and such animals and insects as mosquitoes, birds, coyotes, elephants, cicadas, and cats, which explains the name of the work.
“When I say ‘Love is in the garden,’” she says after singing that song, “I mean that. I mean that because: When my grandma Heloise died, she up and put herself in the plants, and so I go to the garden to talk to her and rip up weeds when I am heartbroken. When I say ‘Grandmother’s a red bird’ — I mean that too. When my grandmother Geraldine died, she threw her ghost into a cardinal. As a bird, she was hard to pin down for conversation so I tattooed a red feather on my arm. Hasn’t totally worked if Imma be honest. When I say Grandaddy’s in the car, he is, and when I say ‘Praise be the wrecking ball,’ I mean my brain. That one’s a metaphor. I don’t know about you but my brain is a wrecking ball.”
She later admits, “The women in my matrilineal line are New Orleans Catholics who are also musicians who suffer migraines and talk to dead people. There are three of us. Ella, Heloise, Heather. Skipped my mom. Don’t know what that’s about.”
Director of photography Aiden Korotkin follows Christian — primarily wearing a “Lux Aeterna” T-shirt, the communion antiphon for the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass — as she moves about Christopher Bowser’s intricately designed stage, from pianos to a carousel slideshow with theater seats, from a small table with an old telephone (with a cord) to a shrine to her grandma Ella, from various lamps and candles to a soda vending machine and other unexpected items, centered on a circle of overlapping rugs to give it a homey feel. She and the band also wander through Woolly Mammoth’s hallways and lobby, reminding us of the physical space of theater.
An NYU grad, film composer, and leader of the band Heather Christian & the Arbornauts, Christian is spellbinding in Animal Wisdom, capturing our attention from the very beginning and never letting go as she openly and honestly details critical moments in her life, her dark eyes and round face captivating. Christian is a multitalented creator who has recently released the audio work Prime: A Practical Breviary for Playwrights Horizons and the video collaboration I Am Sending You the Sacred Face for Theater in Quarantine on YouTube, and she will premiere the Covid-delayed Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova next spring. She leaves nothing behind in Animal Wisdom, one of the best virtual shows to come out during the pandemic, baring her heart and soul, a magnetic force in full command of the stage, her supporting cast, and her bewitched audience.
“I’m gonna tell you what I think about the soul,” she says to us. “So we should make friends real quick, ’cause that’s heavy. Hum with me like this?” I dare you not to listen to her and hum along; it’s impossible to not join Christian on this fabulous interactive ride through metaphorical and metaphysical ghosts that haunt us all.
It might have taken a pandemic lockdown and national protests against racial injustice for eighty-nine-year-old Pittsburgh-born playwright Adrienne Kennedy to be rediscovered, but we’re all the better for it. Last November, the Round House Theatre in Maryland and the McCarter Theatre Center at Princeton kicked off “The Work of Adrienne Kennedy: Inspiration & Influence,” featuring four productions filmed onstage at the Round House. It was a deep dive into Kennedy’s growing legacy, dealing with police brutality, racism, white supremacy, sin, bigotry, and murder. One of the plays has become a touchstone for past and present societal ills that have been front and center during the Covid-19 crisis.
“I was asked to talk about the violent imagery in my work; bloodied heads, severed limbs, dead father, dead Nazis, dying Jesus,” Kennedy alter-ego Suzanne Alexander explains directly to the camera at the start of the hourlong Ohio State Murders. “The chairman said, we do want to hear about your brief years here at Ohio State but we also want you to talk about violent imagery in your stories and plays.” There’s a good reason for Kennedy’s use of violent imagery in her work.
Jacqueline Williams stars as Adrienne Kennedy alter ego Suzanne Alexander in Goodman Theatre production of Ohio State Murders (photo by Flint Chaney)
First produced by the Great Lakes Theater Festival in 1992 with Ruby Dee as Suzanne, the play made its New York premiere in 2007 at the Duke starring LisaGay Hamilton. Round House and McCarter’s 2020 online version featured Lynda Gravatt in the role, while Broadway’s Best Shows’ benefit livestream reading for the Actors Fund earlier this month had six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald as Suzanne, directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon. Now the Goodman Theatre in Chicago is presenting five live productions June 17–20 that can only be experienced in real time, as it happens, filmed live by three mobile camera operators, with no audience in the seats.
Jacqueline Williams is exquisite as Suzanne, delivering her speech in an almost matter-of-fact manner as she moves about the Goodman stage, watching scenes from her past unfold before her eyes. It’s essentially a memory play, with Suzanne detailing her time at Ohio State — Kennedy’s alma mater — when she was a student (portrayed in flashbacks by Eunice Woods) studying English with white professor Robert Hampshire (Shane Kenyon) and sharing a room with musician Iris Ann (Destini Huston) in a dorm where there are only twelve Black girls among six hundred female students. Suzanne displays a profound interest in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles while also learning about Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, but her options at college are limited because she is Black.
When she becomes pregnant, her relationships with the men in her life — her father, her friend Val (Ernest Bentley), and Hampshire — change dramatically. She is treated unfairly by dorm head Miss Dawson but is supported by her aunt Louise and widowed landlady Mrs. Tyler (all three of whom are portrayed by Dee Dee Batteast), and she grows close with law student David (Bentley) after horrific tragedy strikes.
Director Tiffany Nichole Greene (Between Riverside and Crazy,Blood at the Root) and video director Christiana Tye bring the tale to the computer screen superbly, creating a compelling hybrid presentation that has the exciting feel of live theater, or at least as much as you can get streaming at home. Greene also makes the play’s exploration of loss, trauma, mourning, race-based suppression, and unexpected violence relevant to what has occurred over the last fifteen months in America. When Hampshire reads King Arthur, the words hit hard: “‘Till the blood bespattered his stately beard. / As if he had been battering beasts to death. / Had not Sir Ewain and other great lords come up, / His brave heart would have burst then in bitter woe: / ‘Stop!’ these stern men said, ‘You are bloodying yourself!’ / Your cause of grief is cureless and cannot be remedied. You reap no respect when you wring your hands: To weep like a woman is not judged wise.’”
Director of photography Gabe Hatfield and cameramen Matt Cozza and Eugene Hahm, wearing the complex equipment on their backs, calmly navigate Arnel Sancianco’s comfortable set, which consists of library shelves, a desk and chalkboard, a dorm bedroom with two mattresses, a few chairs, and piles of books that look like they might tumble over at any moment. They follow the older Suzanne’s point of view as she shares her story, moving in and out of her old life without strong emotion but instead a kind of perceptive acceptance and admirable grace. In one memorable shot, Hampshire peers at the younger Suzanne from the shadows, suspicion palpable. The lighting is by Jason Lynch, with costumes by Mieka van der Ploeg and sound by Melanie Chen Cole. The cast is exceptional, led by Williams and Woods portraying the same character at different points in her life, revealing that time doesn’t necessary heal all wounds, especially as the world fails to change nearly enough over the decades.
RWO’s sci-fi chamber opera Red Giant blasts off live online June 20 at 7:00
Who:Rhymes with Opera What: Live, virtual sci-fi opera Where:Rhymes with Opera online When: Live on Sunday, June 20, $20, 7:00 (available on demand June 22 – July 6, $10) Why: In 2013, New York-based ensemble Rhymes with Opera presented a fully staged production of composer Adam Matlock and librettist Brian Slattery’s Red Giant, a futuristic sci-fi chamber opera in which three humans take off into space, heading toward parts unknown to escape from a dying planet engulfed by the sun. RWO has now reimagined the show for virtual viewing in its first digital presentation, streaming live on Sunday, June 20, at 7:00. Sopranos Bonnie Lander and Elisabeth Halliday-Quan and baritone Robert Maril will be performing from three different locations, accompanied by the six-member RWOrchestra, conducted by George Tsz-Kwan Lam. The forty-minute work is directed by Ashley Tata, with video design by Eamonn Farrell and set design by Afsoon Pajoufar. David Crandall voices the radio announcer.
“As a lifelong fan of science fiction and a composer enamored of opera as a medium, it only made sense to combine the two when given the opportunity to work on a piece,” Matlock said in a statement. “Of course, in the beginning the scenario — people trying to escape a planet’s surface that has become uninhabitable due to their sun becoming the titular Red Giant — was pure fantasy. But in the nearly decade since this piece was first written, we’ve seen governments and societies struggle to reach a consensus as to whether or not climate change is really happening in the face of readily observable evidence — and it’s hard not to feel that this story has gained some resonance in the face of that. And of course, even in the face of a true existential crisis, humans will still find time to bicker.” Tickets for the live performance, in which Lander streams in from Baltimore, Halliday-Quan from Rochester, and Maril from New York City, are $20; a recording of the show will be available on demand June 22 – July 6 for $10.
Who: More than 170 dancers, Harvey Fierstein, J. Harrison Ghee, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Robyn Hurder, Peppermint, Jelani Remy What:Annual benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Where:Broadway Cares,YouTube When: Sunday, June 20, free, 9:00 Why: Last year, the annual “Broadway Bares” benefit, in which performers take it off for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, went virtual, and the 2021 edition follows suit with “Twerk from Home.” On June 20 at 9:00, vaxxed and waxed performers will show us what they got from their homes, where they’ve spent so much of the past fifteen months because of the pandemic lockdown, and from across the city now that we are opening up again. Directed by “Bares” creator and Tony winner Jerry Mitchell with codirectors Laya Barak and Nick Kenkel, the free evening features more than a dozen high-concept videos from choreographers Barak, Kenkel, John Alix, Al Blackstone, Frank Boccia, Karla Garcia, Jonathan Lee, Ray Mercer, Dylan Pearce, Jenn Rose, Luis Salgado, Michael Lee Scott, Gabriella Sorretino, Kellen Stancil, Rickey Tripp, and James Alonzo White, with appearances by more than 170 dancers, leading up to a grand finale recorded in Times Square.
Donations are strongly encouraged if you can afford it; 2020’s online event raised more than half a million dollars, which sounds great until you realize that the 2019 in-person benefit took in more than two mil. “Being back with the ‘Broadway Bares’ family to create ‘Twerk from Home’ has been an incredible reminder of how beautiful our theater community is, both inside and out,” Mitchell said in a statement. “Creating one more virtual edition of our beloved celebration in safe environments reinforces our belief that the best way to take care of ourselves is to take care of each other.” In addition, there will be special appearances by Harvey Fierstein, J. Harrison Ghee, Jay Armstrong Johnson (in a revealing opener), Robyn Hurder, Peppermint (in a new song, “Strip”), and Jelani Remy.
Created by director Simon Bouisson and writer Olivier Demangel, Republique, the Interactive Movie is a gripping virtual thriller that plays out in real time over your mobile device as a terrorist attack hits the Paris Metro. Instead of weaving between three stories, the film allows the viewer to choose which part to watch when by scrolling from one to the other; in essence, you are the editor, selecting what to follow as if you are on your phone and the events are happening live, breaking news erupting in the palm of your hand. As the tragedy unfolds, the visuals are accompanied by comments and emojis posted by fictional characters, who question what the characters are doing, cheer them on, and offer advice as the danger increases. Lucie (Lyna Khoudri) and Rio (Rio Vega) are broadcasting their “urbex” on social media when the attack starts, sending them deep underground, searching for a safe way out. Antoine (Jean-Baptiste Lafarge) and Boris (Nicolas Avinée) are a pair of lawyers on a subway platform, getting ready for a night out with friends, when things go haywire. And journalist Rudy (Xavier Lacaille) meets Nora (Noémie Merlant), who is desperately trying to find her husband, Djibril (Radouan Leflahi), who is lost amid the chaos.
The details of the plot are based on interviews the filmmakers did with psychologists and victim-support charities, focusing on not only the intense action but the reaction of the characters as the situation grows more dire. The claustrophobic nature of the seventy-minute film is palpable as people run through dark tunnels and ominous corridors and wonder what is behind the next closed door while you watch on your small phone, unable to help in any way, trapped along with them. The experience is particularly potent after a year of quarantine, when so much of the world was unable to see friends and family or go to the movies, instead relegated to home screens and personal devices. Bouisson (Jour de vote, Tokyo Reverse) and Demangel (111, Atlantique) keep everything moving swiftly, but there’s no need to panic if you’re a completist or you think you missed something important; at the end of the film, you are given access to scenes that can fill in any holes or that you want to check out again.
Kyle Marshall (right) has a busy June with Stellar at BAC (above) and two live performances at the Shed
Who: Kyle Marshall, Charmaine Warren What: Dance film, virtual discussion, live performance Where:BAC online, the Shed When: BAC Zoom talk Wednesday, June 16, free with RSVP, 7:00; Shed performances Friday, June 25, 7:00, and Saturday, June 26, 8:00, free with RSVP Why: In a May 2018 Movement Research Critical Correspondence talk with performer, historian, consultant, and dance writer Charmaine Warren, dancer, teacher, and choreographer Kyle Marshall said about working with Myssi Robinson, Mimi Gabriel, Nick Sciscione and Dare Ayorinde, “So it’s the five of us and we’ve known each other for a long time and so coming together, that sense of community I’m realizing is important to my work. The people in the room and that personal investment has to be there and that’s something I’m realizing going into new projects. But with Wage as opposed to Colored, which was a celebration of a black identity, I think with Wage I’m looking at white supremacy and capitalism and how it kind of fits within our bodies and how our bodies are victims of that cycle and perpetrators of that cycle. And how through making Colored I realized I had white supremacist thinking in my own body, about myself, about other people. And so this work came out of that thinking. I’m working with two male-identified dancers, two female-identified dancers, two black dancers, and two white dancers. I’m interested in how these binary things collide and the tension of these things. I’m curious about how bodies are seen and how bodies learn things, and how that history and learning comes into the room and also as a viewer, how do you see a performer as an archetype, as a stereotype. And also themselves because we’re both but we see each other as both and that kind of messy gray area, it’s a lot.”
Marshall continues to explore “that kind of messy gray area” in his Baryshnikov Arts Center commission Stellar, streaming for free through June 21. In the twenty-two-minute piece filmed at BAC’s Jerome Robbins Theater, Marshall, Bree Breeden, and Ariana Speight, in colorful, artistically designed hoodies (by Malcolm-x Betts), float about the space, lifting their arms, kneeling on the ground, clapping, running in circles, and staring into an ominous darkness, set to an electronic score that incorporates jazz, Afrofuturism, and percussive and other sounds by Kwami Winfield. Filmed and edited by Tatyana Tenenbaum, who previously shot Holland Andrews’s meditative Museum of Calm at BAC, it’s a poignant piece that furthers what Marshall was talking about with Warren three years ago.
Marshall and Warren, who last July spoke about creating dance during the pandemic in a “Black Dance Stories” episode, will be back in conversation on June 16 at 7:00 in a BAC Zoom discussion about Stellar. Marshall, who released the dance film Hudson in January, is also part of the Shed’s “Open Call” exhibition, performing live at the Hudson Yards venue on June 25-26, presenting a “dance honoring the spirit of humanity and sacredness of gathering”; limited free tickets are available, and the first show will be livestreamed as well.
