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

BRICKMAN FOR BROADWAY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Who: Jim Brickman, Kelli O’Hara, Matt Doyle, Sierra Boggess, Megan Hilty, Wayne Brady, Shoshana Bean, Santino Fontana, Adrienne Warren, Norm Lewis, Max Von Essen, Jane Lynch
What: Holiday concert benefiting the Actors Fund
Where: Zoom
When: Saturday, November 28, $20-$200, 8:00
Why: Solo pianist, songwriter, and author Jim Brickman is celebrating the holidays this year with a new album and virtual tour. The just-released Brickman for Broadway Christmas features an all-star lineup singing seasonal favorites, including Santino Fontana’s “Coming Home for Christmas,” Adrienne Warren’s “Hear Me,” Megan Hilty’s “Merry Christmas Darling,” Norm Lewis’s “’Twas The Night Before Christmas,” Shoshana Bean’s “Sending You a Little Christmas,” Sierra Boggess’s “Fa La La,” Max Von Essen’s “Christmas Is,” and Kelli O’Hara’s “O Holy Night.” On November 28 at 8:00, all of those Broadway performers will join Brickman and special guests Wayne Brady and Jane Lynch for a livestreamed interactive concert benefiting the Actors Fund.

“Recording duets with Broadway stars has always been on my career bucket list,” Brickman said in a statement. “The Brickman for Broadway Christmas project to benefit the Actors Fund was a perfect opportunity to record my songs with theater’s best and to raise money for such a worthy cause during this challenging time in the world. And to hear such phenomenal singers bring these songs to life was a thrill.” Admission to the show itself is $20; for the $75 Gold Package you can hang out with Brickman and others in a Zoom room and get a stocking of Christmas presents (CD, autographed photo, program, more) delivered to your door; and the $200 Diamond Package adds all of the above along with access to a preshow party. Brickman will also be hosting “Comfort & Joy at Home” concerts with special guests November 29 through January 2, each concert benefiting a different organization and/or theater.

PANDEMIC PLAYERS: RAISING ARIZONA BENEFIT READING

Who: Zachary Levi, Alison Pill, Dean Norris, Clancy Brown, Macon Blair, Ross Partridge, Sarah Clarke, Jeff “the Dude” Dowd, Jordana Brewster, Leila Almas Rose, Jaime Zavallos
What: Benefit reading for Covenant House
Where: Pandemic Players YouTube channel
When: Wednesday, November 25, pay-what-you-can, 2:00
Why: “This here’s the TV. Two hours a day, maximum, either . . . either educational or football, so’s, y’know, you don’t ruin your appreciation of the finer things,” H.I. “Hi” McDunnough says in the Coen brothers classic Raising Arizona. Since the middle of March, we have all had to get our entertainment from screens — televisions, desktop computers, laptops, phones, etc., and for a lot longer than two hours a day as we shelter in place from the deadly coronavirus. On November 25, that finer entertainment includes a charity reading, by the newly formed Pandemic Players, of the 1987 film about a childless couple (from a now-battleground state) who decide that another family has enough kids and won’t mind if they take one. “Edwina’s insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase,” H.I. explains in defending the crime. Wildly unpredictable, gut-bustingly funny, and beautifully insane, the film helped spread the genius of writer-director Joel Coen and producer-director Ethan Coen, who had previously made the modern noir Blood Simple and would follow Arizona with Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink, quite a start to their storied career. The reading is a benefit for Covenant House, which helps protect homeless youth in thirty-one cities across six countries. The original film featured Nicolas Cage as H.I., Holly Hunter as Ed, Trey Wilson as Nathan Arizona Sr., John Goodman as Gale, William Forsythe as Evelle, Sam McMurray as Glen, Frances McDormand as Dot, and Randall “Tex” Cobb as Leonard Smalls; the benefit cast consists of Zachary Levi as H.I., Alison Pill as Ed, Dean Norris as Nathan Arizona Sr., Clancy Brown as Gale Snoats, Macon Blair as Evelle Snoats, Ross Partridge as Glen, Sarah Clarke as Dot, Jeff “the Dude” Dowd as Leonard Smalls, Leila Almas Rose and Jaime Zavallos as multiple minor characters, and Jordana Brewster as the narrator.

Pandemic Players will present a benefit reading of Raising Arizona on YouTube on November 25

Pandemic Players self-identify as “a ragtag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest . . . for a shining planet known as Earth . . No, wait . . . that’s Battlestar Galactica. Pandemic Players told HAL to open the pod bay doors . . . Crap! Pandemic Players is a group of nobodies who dream of being somebodies. No, that’s Taxi Driver. . . . Pandemic Players is an epic of epic epicness . . . Damn you, Scott Pilgrim! OK, got it: Pandemic Players is diverse and growing group of like-minded artists who have come together for a common cause to do what they can to help in these deeply troubling times.” Headed by director-producer Matthew Barber, filmmakers Chris Brown and Darren Dean, writer-producers Frederik Ehrhardt and Myrta Vida, and producer Mark Rabinowitz, Pandemic Players will next present benefit readings of The Breakfast Club and Heathers along with other classic TV shows, radio plays, and films, partnering with different charity organizations on a monthly basis.

A THOUSAND DREADFUL THINGS: SHAKESPEARE AND THE FEAR OF BLACK VENGEANCE

Ron Cephas Jones (right) will discuss Titus Andronicus in special Shakespeare program from Brooklyn Public Library and the Public Theater (photo by Joan Marcus)

Who: Ron Cephas Jones, Eisa Davis, William Jackson Harper, Raúl Esparza, Jill Lepore, Michael Sexton, Ayanna Thompson, Stephen Greenblatt, Philip Lorenz
What: Digital Shakespeare program
Where: Brooklyn Public Library and the Public Theater
When: Sunday, November 22, free with RSVP, 7:00; Thursday, December 3, free with RSVP, 7:00; Thursday, December 17, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: Shakespeare readings and discussions have multiplied during the pandemic, with actors and scholars presenting impassioned soliloquies online, followed by fascinating talks about the legacy of the Bard, particularly in this time of Covid-19, isolation, and social and political unrest; Red Bull Theater’s RemarkaBULL Podversations have been especially enlightening, highlighted by scintillating episodes with Chukwudi Iwuji and Patrick Page. Now the Brooklyn Public Library and the Public Theater have teamed up for a free three-part digital voyage into Shakespeare, kicking off November 22 at 7:00 with “A Thousand Dreadful Things: Shakespeare and the Fear of Black Vengeance,” an exploration of Aaron the Moor from Titus Andronicus, with Ron Cephas Jones, who played Aaron at the Public in 2011, William Jackson Harper, and Public Theater Shakespeare scholar in residence Ayanna Thompson, author of Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America. On December 3 at 7:00, “What Is the City but the People? Shakespeare, Art, and Citizenship” features Pulitzer Prize-winning profession Stephen Greenblatt, author of Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, and actor and playwright Eisa Davis looking at modern democracy; and on December 17 at 7:00, “Two Monsters of Nature: Lope de Vega and William Shakespeare” links the theater of Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, with readings in Spanish and English by Tony winner Raúl Esparza and commentary by Cornell professor of comparative language Philip Lorenz. All three programs will be moderated by Public Theater Shakespeare Initiative director Michael Sexton and are free with RSVP.

DAVID GODLIS PRESENTS GODLIS STREETS

Who: David Godlis, Luc Sante, Chris Stein, Dave Brolan
What: Virtual book launch
Where: Rizzoli Zoom
When: Thursday, November 19, free with RSVP, 5:00
Why: “As Garry Winogrand said, ‘I photograph to see what things look like photographed.’ This book is what I photographed,” David Godlis explains in his new book, Godlis Streets (Reel Art Press, $39.95, November 2020). I’m used to seeing the ever-cool Godlis and his impressive curly hair every year at the New York Film Festival, snapping away from his seat at front and center, but this year’s event, of course, was virtual, so I will have to settle for catching up with Godlis on Zoom when Rizzoli hosts his book launch on November 19 at 5:00, when Godlis will speak with Reel Art Press music editor Dave Brolan. Godlis is known for his black-and-white documentation of the punk scene, cinema luminaries, and street photos from the 1970s to 1990s, ever since he purchased his first 35mm camera in 1970; his motto is “Better Living Through Photography.” Look out for his photo of an outdoor stand selling “Black Art,” a drawing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., next to “American Art,” a painting of a clown; a shot of a nun walking past a bus with an ad featuring a naked man and woman on it; and a picture of two women looking askance at him as they pass a peep show. The book includes a foreword by Luc Sante and an afterword by Chris Stein; both Sante and Stein will be part of the launch as well, which is free with RSVP.

PERFORMA TELETHON

Laurie Anderson will revisit Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell for Performa telethon (photo courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York)

Who: Jason Moran, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Laurie Anderson, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, more
What: Virtual benefit gala for Performa
Where: Pace Gallery
When: Wednesday, November 18, free with RSVP, 2:00 to 10:00 pm
Why: Performa is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary with an eight-hour gala fundraiser featuring live performances, specially commissioned artist editions, and testimonials, an online mashup of Nam June Paik’s 1984 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell and Barbara Kruger’s 1989 critique of Jerry Lewis and his annual MDA Labor Day Telethon, aired live from the seventh floor of Pace Gallery in Chelsea. “Nam June Paik’s innovations in broadcast and large-scale architectural installations of television monitors changed the way we think about the screen as an art form,” Performa founder and director RoseLee Goldberg said in a statement. “Half a century after Paik’s legendary interventions in television, we find ourselves in a unique situation: We must now rely on the screen in new ways in the midst of a pandemic that has cost over one million lives. Like Paik, we approach the screen as an exciting platform for artists to communicate their work and ideas.”

Produced in collaboration with E.S.P. TV, the fundraiser honors founding patron Toby Devan Lewis and will include a giant tally board, confetti, giant checks, balloons, a bank of people on telephones, and other telethon staples while acknowledging the Covid-19 crisis, election unrest, the BLM movement, and other critical contemporary social issues. The show will be highlighted by performances from Derrick Adams & Dave Guy, Jérôme Bel, Torkwase Dyson (reading an excerpt from Myself a Distance), David Hallberg, Glenn Kaino, Ragnar Kjartansson, Lang Lang, Marching Cobras, Jason Moran, Oyinda, Yvonne Rainer, Jennifer Rubell, Jacolby Satterwhite, Rufus Wainwright, Hank Willis Thomas & Ebony Brown, Samson Young, and Laurie Anderson, who will pay tribute to Paik; there will also be screenings of Lynda Benglis’s On Screen, The Grunions Are Running, and Document and testimonials from Tamy Ben-Tor, Elmgreen & Dragset, Omer Fast, Maria Hassabi, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Kelly Nipper, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, and others, along with archival footage and never-before-seen behind-the-scenes outtakes. Six artist editions will make their debut and will be available only during the broadcast, by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Barbara Kruger, Kia LaBeija, Michèle Lamy, Cindy Sherman, and Laurie Simmons. The twentieth Performa Biennial, curated by David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards, is scheduled for 2021, but it might look very different from previous ones depending on the state of the pandemic.

RED BULL THEATER: THE COURAGE TO RIGHT A WOMAN’S WRONGS (VALOR, AGAVIO, Y MUJER)

Red Bull Theater teams up with UCLA to present new translation of Spanish Golden Age comedy

Who: Red Bull Theater company
What: Livestreamed benefit reading of new translation of Ana Caro Mallén’s The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs
Where: Red Bull Theater website and Facebook Live
When: Monday, November 16, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 7:30 (available on demand through November 20 at 7:00)
Why: For its latest livestreamed reading, Red Bull is teaming up with Diversifying the Classics | UCLA to present a brand-new translation of Spanish Golden Age poet and playwright Ana Caro’s The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs (“Valor, agravio y mujer.”) Part of La Escena 2020, the second edition of Los Angeles’s Festival of Hispanic Classical Theater, the seventeenth-century comedy focuses on a woman’s boundary-crossing encounters with issues of society and gender, justice and honor, specifically related to her former lover, Don Juan. In their introduction to the new translation, Marta Albalá Pelegrín and Rafael Jaime write, “Through this stirring tale of a woman’s courage to right the wrongs she has suffered, the play holds up to scrutiny contemporary notions of masculine honor and offers in their place a vision that opens up space for women and their agency.”

The reading will be performed by Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Helen Cespedes, Natascia Diaz, Carson Elrod, Anthony Michael Martinez, Sam Morales, Alfredo Narciso, Ryan Quinn, Luis Quintero, and Matthew Saldivar and is directed by Melia Bensussen; there will be a live, interactive Bull Session with some of the artists involved and UCLA professor of Spanish and English Barbara Fuchs and California State Polytechnic English and modern languages associate professor Pelegrín on November 19 at 7:30, also free with RSVP. The reading will be available on demand through November 20 at 7:00.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS: DAVINA SEMO / REVERBERATION

Davina Semo’s Reverberation rings out in Brooklyn Bridge Park through April 18 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Davina Semo, Daniel S. Palmer
What: Livestreamed discussion
Where: Public Art Fund Zoom
When: Monday, November 16, free with RSVP, 5:00
Why: “Ring them bells, ye heathen / From the city that dreams / Ring them bells from the sanctuaries / ’Cross the valleys and streams / For they’re deep and they’re wide / And the world’s on its side / And time is running backwards / And so is the bride,” Bob Dylan sang on his 1989 album, Oh Mercy. You can ring them bells from the sanctuary of Brooklyn Bridge Park, across the East River, in Davina Semo’s interactive installation Reverberation, which continues through April 18 along the Pier 1 waterfront promenade. Reverberation consists of five large-scale bronze bells in pearlescent orange paint, named “Reflector,” “Singer,” “Dreamer,” “Listener,” and “Mother,” that visitors can ring by pulling on a chain, each clapper with unique drilled holes to emit a slightly different sound, evoking wakeup calls, warnings, alarms, calls to action, prayer, and change, and the dinnertime announcement for families to come together, all taking on new meanings during the Covid-19 crisis. (You should bring your own hand sanitizer if you plan on grabbing the galvanized steel chain, and remember to observe social distancing.)

Davina Semo will discuss her outdoor installation in a virtual Public Art Fund talk on November 16 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

“Bells are very much part of our urban landscapes,” Semo says in a Public Art Fund video. “They are easy to ignore in a way because they’re so ubiquitous, and oftentimes they are housed in institutions that for better or worse are no longer relevant or are maybe relevant in ways that we want to change. I was interested in taking the form and this ancient tool and democratizing the process in this way that I hope could be meaningful to the person ringing the bell and also to the community at large.” On November 16 at 5:00, the DC-born, San Francisco-based Semo will take part in a free Public Art Fund talk with curator Daniel S. Palmer, cosponsored by the Cooper Union. As Dylan also sang, “Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf / Ring them bells for all of us who are left / Ring them bells for the chosen few / Who will judge the many when the game is through / Ring them bells, for the time that flies / For the child that cries / When innocence dies.” (You can see twi-ny’s slideshow of Reverberation here.)