this week in theater

SUMMERSTAGE ANYWHERE: RODNEY KING FILM CONVERSATION WITH ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH AND DR. STEPHANIE LEIGH BATISTE

Roger Guenveur Smith will discuss his role as Rodney King in Spike Lee film as part of SummerStage Anywhere series

Who: Roger Guenveur Smith, Dr. Stephanie Leigh Batiste
What: Live discussion and Q&A
Where: SummerStage Anywhere
When: Thursday, February 11, free, 7:00
Why: “So whatcha wanna do, Rodney King? Reminisce?” Roger Guenveur Smith asks in Rodney King. “It goes a little bit something like this. . . .” Directed by Spike Lee, the 2017 film is a document of Smith’s one-man multimedia stage show exploring who Rodney King is as a human being and not just a controversial figure who became the symbol of the 1992 LA riots. On February 11 at 7:00, Smith, who has appeared in numerous Lee movies and has also portrayed Booker T. Washington, Huey P. Newton, and basebrawlers Juan Marichal and John Roseboro, will discuss the film with Dr. Stephanie Leigh Batiste, associate professor of Black studies and English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, offering new perspectives given the BLM protests that began last May following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police. The film is available on Netflix or can be watched for free here in advance. The event is part of SummerStage Anywhere, an online initiative of the City Parks Foundation that also includes last week’s “Lift Every Voice: Celebrating 150 Years of James Weldon Johnson’s Legacy,” with Desmond Richardson, Khalia Campbell, Angie Swan, Laila Jeter, Donovan Canales, Elizabeth Alexander, and Phylicia Rashad, and continues February 18 with “The Rewind: A Celebration of Black Culture,” introduced by Greg Tate, and February 25 with “Michael Mwenso: Hope, Resist, and Heal,” a performance and conversation with Michael Mwenso and Shannon Effinger.

THE KITCHEN PLAYS

Who: Eden Theater Company
What: Short Zoom plays about isolation
Where: Eden Theater Zoom and Facebook Live
When: February 5, 11, 12, 19, 20, $5-$50, 8:00
Why: New City–based Eden Theater Company continues exploring our living quarters, where we’ve been stuck since last March, with The Kitchen Plays, the follow-up to last year’s Room Plays, which took us through the bedroom, the living room, and the bathroom. The short works are like windows into the situations so many of us are experiencing as we still shelter in place, waiting for the vaccine to be administered to enough people so we can really start opening things up and return to some semblance of normalcy.

The Kitchen Plays consist of Jake Brasch’s (The Man in the Fuchsia Mask) Ginger Bug, directed by Amber Calderon and starring Brasch and Madeline Barr as a husband and wife battling it out in their weekly cookoff; Eden creative artistic director Cassandra Paras’s (Daeva) Passion Project, directed by Byron Anthony (The Man in the Fuchsia Mask) and featuring Paras (Monogamous Animals) and Larry Fleischman as a couple rehearsing an audition scene; and Madison Harrison’s For the Family, directed by Eden producing artistic director Diane Davis, with Owen Alleyne and Danielle Kogan in a story set around a Thanksgiving with estranged parents as guests. The three works will be performed live February 5, 11, 12, 19, and 20 at 8:00; tickets begin at $5 based on what you can afford.

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.

HI, ARE YOU SINGLE?

HI, ARE YOU SINGLE?
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
February 1-28, $20.99 for forty-eight-hour stream (captioning and audio description available)
www.woollymammoth.net

Ryan J. Haddad wants to get laid. A lot. And also find true love and inner happiness. Is that so much to ask? He shares his bittersweet, hugely entertaining story in his one-man show Hi, Are You Single?, streaming from Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company February 1-28. Haddad delves into his deepest desires in the hourlong autobiographical play, which was filmed live on Woolly Mammoth’s DC stage, in front of a small, masked, socially distanced audience made up of members of the staff and design team.

“Have you ever felt an overwhelming sense of longing for companionship and intimacy and love?” he asks. “And how many of you just get horny sometimes, huh?” Haddad, who is gay and has cerebral palsy, requiring the use of a walker, details various encounters with men, from a high school football player to guys he meets on a gay dating site, at an East Village bar, and other pickup hotspots. He is engagingly open and honest, which can be both shocking and hysterically funny, and not just because of his disability, which he does not let stop him from fulfilling his sexual urges, like loving to be cuddled after being spanked. He also poignantly relates the issues of being both gay and disabled. After coming out to his mother, she tells him, “I’m scared, because now you’re different in two ways.”

Ryan J. Haddad gets intimate in autobiographical one-man show (photo by Lawrence E. Moten III)

Hi, Are You Single? has been touring the country since 2016; the filmed version, presented in association with LA’s IAMA Theatre Company and directed by Laura Savia and Jess McLeod, arrives at a time when theater-hungry audiences are desperate for intimate artistic connection, not unlike the companionship Haddad seeks, save, perhaps, for the erotic sexual aspect. Haddad, whose previous work includes My Straighties, Noor and Hadi Go to Hogwarts, and Falling for Make Believe at such venues as the Public Theater, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, and La MaMa E.T.C. here in New York, also deftly handles a part of the show in which he brings someone onstage to dance with him, a startling yet affecting moment during the coronavirus crisis. In Hi, Are You Single?, Haddad takes a long look at himself, which makes us look at ourselves in solidarity, in a wholly satisfying show that will yet leave you aching for more.

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.