this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

MONTH OF REST

MONTH OF REST
February 4, 14, 17, 28, free with RSVP
playco.org

Last week, New York–based PlayCo premiered the first iteration of William Burke’s Is It Supposed to Last?, an interactive Zoom party in which attendees brought streamers, fun dress, and food and drink to a gathering that began with an ominous live piano performance of Neil Diamond’s classic “Sweet Caroline,” a favorite in bars, concert halls, sports arenas, and the internet, as evidenced by a December global singalong. But Is It Supposed to Last?, directed by Burke and Bryn Herdrich and starring Jehan O. Young and Carolina Đỗ, with music by Sugar Vendil, took a turn on the state of the world with a pair of monologues and an isolated man getting wrapped up, concluding with multiple recorded versions (Elvis!) as people decided how long they wanted to continue listening to a song that usually provides an instant connection among friends and strangers. PlayCo has vowed to do less in February, hosting four free activities before returning with the next iteration of Is It Supposed to Last? in March. It all starts February 4 at 12:30 with a gentle, guided nap led by Đỗ, addressing such questions as “Why must we, as adults, have to live with nap regrets?” and “Do you feel the siren’s call to just slip away from work into dreamland for just a lil teeny tiny nap?” On February 14 at 5:00, Justin Taylor explores self-compassion in a group meditation, advising you to love yourself even if you might be alone on Valentine’s Day. On February 17 at 11:30, Charlene Adhiambo will offer journaling tips with prompts and freewriting. And on February 28 at 8:00, you can get shaking with the virtual Social DisDance Party with Ani, Sunny, and other members of PlayCo, kicking loose as the cold, short month comes to an end.

PHASES AND THE IN-BETWEENS

Phases and the In-Betweens features animation, text, and video incorporating the phases of the moon into caregiving during the pandemic

PHASES AND THE IN-BETWEENS
The Shed
Through February 11, free
theshed.org

Phases and the In-Betweens is a collaborative intervention on the website of the Shed, the Hudson Yards performance center that opened in 2019 and hosts music, theater, dance, art, and other programs and exhibitions. The ongoing multimedia piece changes with the phases of the moons; it began with the new moon on January 13 and was updated for the first quarter January 20; next up is the last quarter on February 4, followed by the new moon on February 11, which will signal the end of the project. Phases and the In-Betweens is created by Brothers Sick, consisting of artist, educator, and curator Ezra and photographer Noah Benus; interdisciplinary media artist Yo-Yo Lin; and poet, curator, and critic DJ Queer Shoulders (danilo machado). Incorporating animation, text, and video, the work examines issues of caregiving, disability, and lockdown as they relate to the “phases of reopening” and the inevitable return to whatever “normal” might be on the other side of the Covid-19 crisis. “For this project, at its core, we really wanted to think about what care looks like in private and public and how that relationship of care is enacted during a global pandemic,” Brothers Sick said in a statement. “From there, we reference different elements of care in isolation and public, layering and blurring the intimacy of illness and public life during precious and precarious outings. We layer and blur hierarchies of material, media, and experience. For the format, we really wanted to explore these ever-present ideas of care and sickness through a broadened presentation of digital art sharing and making, across sick, disabled, Crip time, pandemic time, celestial space and time, and across ourselves in our care networks with our collaborators.”

They accomplish that with bold imagery, words that jump out at you, and detailed medical information. They narrate, “squirm fingers / nitrile disposable sanitary / a map of new york city has joined / the right side of frame / colors change from shades of green to blue / metrics and mappings / testing and cases / patches of pink and purple and orange / we move faster to the left passing more fans, / a worker and a uniformed soldier, who waves / sterling silver ringed finger / scroll touch screen questionnaire / how much pain / how severe.” Phases and the In-Betweens is part of the Shed’s “Up Close” digital series, which has previously presented House or Home: 690 Wishes with the HawtPlates and Charlotte Brathwaite, Revelation of Proverbs by Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, Go Off! Joy in Defiance with DJ April Hunt, Rashaad Newsome, Legendary Monster Mon_Teese, and Precious, Solo B by Mariana Valencia, and other programs.

RED FOLDER: AN ILLUSTRATED SHORT PLAY

RED FOLDER
Steppenwolf Now
January 27 – September 1, $75 for six online productions
www.steppenwolf.org

“Why aren’t you my friend?” a first grader asks his red folder in Rajiv Joseph’s devilishly clever and insightful short Red Folder, part of Steppenwolf’s online streaming portal, Steppenwolf Now. Written, directed, and illustrated by ensemble member Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie winner whose previous plays include Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Guards at the Taj, and Describe the Night, Red Folder is like an audiovisual children’s book gone mad, a deranged and demented — and repeatedly laugh-out-loud funny — story about fear of not fitting in, of loneliness and being different. “It’s something that I never would have conceived of doing outside of the restrictions that the pandemic has imposed on us,“ Joseph tells Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro in a video teaser.

Red Folder is a calmly told demented tale of a child’s fears in first grade

The tale takes place within a squiggly circle against a solid off-white background, with rather simplistic line-drawn characters and imagery, like a chapter of a miniature DIY graphic novel come to life. Joseph concentrates on red and black, with an occasional flash of green and yellow as anthropomorphic figures haunt the boy’s daily existence, which involves pudding, skulls, blood, a stained coffee mug, a mean teacher, and a beloved Hulk lunch box. The story is narrated in an appropriately cool, dispassionate tone by Steppenwolf’s Carrie Coon (Mary Jane, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), accompanied by Chris P. Thompson’s original piano score, a riff on Vince Guaraldi’s music for A Charlie Brown Christmas. The eleven-minute piece was filmed and edited by Joel Moorman, with animation by Christopher Huizar; it’s essentially a memory play that will send you back to first grade and childhood’s existential dread, remembering your teacher and classmates and favorite lunch box. Hopefully what happens to the boy didn’t happen to you, although you probably experienced the same fears, the same worries, and the same overall horror that accompanies one’s first encounter with institutional authority.

Red Folder is available for streaming as part of the Steppenwolf Now package, which also features James Ijames’s two-person short Zoom play What Is Left, Burns and Isaac Gómez’s audio play Wally World; coming up next are Vivian J. O. Barnes’s Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! in March, Donnetta Lavinia Grays’s Where We Stand in April, and Sam Shepard’s Ages of the Moon in June.

THE NOURISH PROJECT

THE NOURISH PROJECT
WP Theater
January 28 – February 7, free, 7:30
wptheater.org

New York City’s WP (formerly Women’s Project) Theater seeks to soothe and feed your soul with The Nourish Project, an interactive virtual presentation continuing through February 7. Conceived and directed by associate artistic director Rebecca Martínez, who was part of the team that took us on an audio tour through the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine community in Sanctuary and helmed one of the microplays in the sensational Here We Are series, The Nourish Project is a multidisciplinary production featuring dance, music, storytelling, poetry, food, and more from a collective of BIPOC creators. Admission is free, but there are three levels of suggested donations if you can afford it, from $10 to $100; when you register, you have to select an element — water, earth, fire, or air — that will determine which breakout room you go to about halfway through the show.

Natalie Benally is one of several BIPOC creators participating in The Nourish Project (photo courtesy WP Theater)

The seventy-minute experience includes songs by Edna Vazquez, opening and closing words written by Jaisey Bates, a cooking demonstration and song from Joaquin Lopez, poems by Latrelle Bright and Camryn Bruno, element hostings by Natalie Benally, Nikiko Masumoto, Jono Eiland, and Bright, dance by Brittany Grier, Megan J. Minturn, and Joya Powell, and other contributions from Siobhan Juanita Brown, Sage Chanell, Madeline Sayet, Dr. Michelle Tom, and Meghan “Sigvanna” Topkok. Along the way, you will be asked intimate questions in the chat, and you are encouraged to turn your camera on at several points to share a few objects visually. You will also hear such lines as “I, the spirit in constant motion, wafting across the planet ever present, holding everything that ever was” and “We are storied bodies, made of stars.” The Nourish Project is earnest, New Agey, reverential, and crunchy, with flourishes of organic spirituality and ASMR, but if that’s your thing, give it a shot. These days, you gotta find comfort and community wherever you can.

RemarkaBULL PODVERSATIONS: EXPLORING KING LEAR

Who: André De Shields, Nathan Winkelstein
What: Live discussion of the “Blow, winds” speech from King Lear
Where: Red Bull Theater’s website, Vimeo, Facebook Live
When: Monday, February 1, free with RSVP, 7:30
Why: Baltimore-born actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer André De Shields has been a superstar during the pandemic lockdown, popping up all over the place. The Emmy, Tony, and Grammy winner portrayed Elder Qualls in Shaka Senghor’s A Father’s Sorrow for the 24-Hour Plays series, revisited Haarlem Nocturne for Crossroads Theatre Company, took part in a terrific Classic Conversation with Classic Stage artistic director John Doyle, played Anton Ego in Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, sang “Shine” for the #SaveWestBankCafe Telethon, crooned “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in the Home for the Holidays BCEFA benefit concert, delivered the keynote speech for Victory Gardens Theater’s Voices of Tomorrow, read Congressman John Lewis’s “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of the Nation,” participated in an all-star outdoor rendition of “Broadway Baby” for Our America: A Concert for the Soul of the Nation, and will next serve as host, as Hermes, of the Onassis Foundation’s Live from Mount Olympus, a free weekly podcast debuting February 2 on PRX’s TRAX podcast network for tweens, directed by Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston.

Andre De Shields stars as King Lear at the Folger Theatre in 2007 (photo by Scott Suchman)

He now turns to Shakespeare for Red Bull Theater’s RemarkaBULL Podversation presentation “Exploring King Lear,” streaming live February 1 at 7:30. De Shields will deliver the “Blow, winds” speech from Act 3: Scene 2 of the Bard’s tragedy, followed by a discussion with Red Bull associate producer Nathan Winkelstein. “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! / You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout / Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! / You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, / Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, / Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, / Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!” Lear declares. De Shields (Hadestown, Ain’t Misbehavin’) portrayed the king at Classical Theater of Harlem and the Folger in DC in 2007, so he has his own unique history with the character. Previous Podversations have featured Patrick Page on Othello, Kate Burton on The Tempest, Stephen Spinella on As You Like It, Elizabeth Marvel on Julius Caesar, and Chukwudi Iwuji on Henry VI.

FRAN & KATE’S DRAMA CLUB

Who: Frances McDormand, Kate Valk, special guests
What: Live series about the Wooster Group
Where: The Performing Garage Zoom
When: Thursday, January 28, $50, 8:00
Why: Two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand and Wooster Group founding member Kate Valk are teaming up for the new virtual series Fran & Kate’s Drama Club, in which they will interview special guests and show clips exploring the history of the Wooster Group, one of New York City’s underground gems. The company, based at the Performing Garage on Wooster St., was founded in 1975 by Valk, Elizabeth LeCompte, Spalding Gray, Jim Clayburgh, Ron Vawter, Willem Dafoe, and Peyton Smith and has been presenting innovative and experimental works ever since. The club kicks off January 28 at 8:00 with a look at Juliet Lashinsky’s “The Archivist,” part of the online DAILIES series featuring archivist Clay Hapaz. Among the short pieces are McDormand quoting Bertolt Brecht from The Mother, McDormand reading from the article “Fair Treatment for Theatre Labor: A Right to Perform Plays” by Catherine Fisk and Alisa Hartz, Valk and Vito Acconci in Raul Ruiz’s The Golden Boat, Valk in five episodes of Sugar High, and video and photos from the current rehearsals for The Mother, in which Valk plays the title character. Fran & Kate’s Drama Club is a fundraiser to ensure the company completes The Mother and two other Covid-sensitive productions, a collaboration with Eric Berryman and an audio recording of Daniel Paul Schreber’s 1903 book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness with McDormand, Maura Tierney, and Ari Fliakos; tickets are $50.

GALLIM HAPPY HOUR WITH SARA MEARNS AND ANDREA MILLER

Who: Sara Mearns, Andrea Miller
What: Happy hour discussion with cocktail
Where: Gallim Dance Zoom and Facebook Live
When: Thursday, January 28, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns had already been a revelation, performing the role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake, starring in numerous Balanchine ballets, and appearing in works by Justin Peck, Kyle Abraham, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, and many others. But she has reached a whole new level during the pandemic, participating in a wide range of virtual projects that has displayed the breadth of her skill and dedication. In May, she was one of thirty-two dancers to perform Le Cygne (The Swan) variation for Swans for Relief, in June she collaborated with choreographer and husband Joshua Bergasse, songwriter Zoe Sarnak, and actress Margo Seibert on the Works & Process commission Storm, in July she and Nina Ananiashvili explored the dual role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake for New York City Center’s Studio 5: Live @ Home series, in September she was mesmerizing in Lee Mingwei and Bill T. Jones’s durational Our Labyrinth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in October she danced in Peck’s Thank You, New York with Christopher Grant, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Taylor Stanley for the New York City Ballet New Works Festival, in November she paired with David Hallberg in Wheeldon’s The Two of Us for Fall for Dance, and in December she was one of seven dancers re-creating Molissa Fenley’s State of Darkness solo onstage at the Joyce, in addition to multiple interviews and talkbacks (for example, the new Works & Process docuseries Isolation to Creation) and posting about taking dance classes online.

If you’re out of breath reading all of that, imagine how Mearns feels. You can find out just how she feels when she meets virtually with GALLIM founder and artistic director Andrea Miller, a Guggenheim Fellow and the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for a live happy hour discussion on January 28 at 6:00 on Zoom and Facebook Live; Mearns has chosen a sunset splash as her cocktail of choice, consisting of three parts San Pellegrino blood orange and one part Ketel One vodka over ice.