this week in theater

CHERRY ORCHARD FESTIVAL: STATE VS. NATASHA BANINA

state 2

Who: Arlekin Players Theatre
What: Live Zoom interactive theater art experiment
Where: Cherry Orchard Festival Zoom
When: Sunday, June 14, 21, 28, free with RSVP, 8:00
Why: The Cherry Orchard Festival, which has presented such shows as Chekhov’s Ivanov and such films as Elephants Can Play Football here in New York, will be staging a “live Zoom theater art experiment” on June 14, 21, and 28 at 8:00. Reconfiguring its tenth anniversary season, Boston’s Arlekin Players Theatre is going virtual with State vs. Natasha Banina, a new play specially conceived for Zoom, based on Yaroslava Pulinovich’s Natasha’s Dream, a solo work the company put on at the New Rep Theatre in February 2017. The interactive adaptation reunites actress Darya Denisova, director Igor Golyak, choreographer Viktor Plotnikov, and video artist Anton Iakhontov, along with composer Vadim Khrapatchev, as orphan Natasha Banina makes her plea for freedom via a Zoom courtroom where the audience serves as the jury. The show will be performed live on June 14, 21, and 28 at 8:00, followed by a discussion, and attendance is free with advance RSVP.

“In response to the Covid-19 emergency, we had to cancel all live performances scheduled for June 2020 as part of the annual Cherry Orchard Festival, but we still wanted to do something unique for our audiences during these challenging times,” festival executive producer Maria Shclover said in a statement. Golyak added, “During these uncertain times, being artistic and creative are essential, and we are excited about this new theatrical experience. We are creating a new art form to overcome social distancing, the pandemic, and ultimately unite people in one virtual space by merging theater, cinematography, and video games.” Donations will be accepted to support the Actors Fund’s Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

WE ARE HERE: A CELEBRATION OF RESILIENCE, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE

we are here

Who: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Whoopi Goldberg, Renée Fleming, Adrien Brody, Billy Joel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lang Lang, Joyce DiDonato, Lea Salonga, Lauren Ambrose, Mayim Bialik, Julia Bullock, Christian Reif, Steven Skybell, Isabel Leonard, Lester Lynch, Jelani Remy, Jackie Hoffman, Elmore James, Daniel Kahn, John Brancy, Peter Dugan, Cantor Rebecca Garfein, Sasha Lurje, Dani Marcus, Rachel Zatcoff, J. David Williams, Glenn Seven Allen, Patrick Farrell, Jennifer Zetlan, Blythe Gaissert, Gerald Steichen, Thomas Bagwell, Zalmen Mlotek, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, more
What: Gala concert honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of WWII and the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Where: We Are Here Live
When: Sunday June 14, free (donations accepted here), 2:00
Why: The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, and Sing for Hope have joined forces with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation for the gala event “We Are Here: A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope,” an afternoon of virtual music, theater, and civic discussion honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of WWII and the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, placing everything in context with the current pandemic, societal changes stemming from the murder of George Floyd, and the rise of anti-Semitism around the world. Among the performers and presenters are Whoopi Goldberg, Adrien Brody, Billy Joel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lang Lang, Lea Salonga, Lauren Ambrose, Mayim Bialik, Julia Bullock, Steven Skybell, Jackie Hoffman, Zalmen Mlotek, and many others. Forward editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren will discuss the 2019 documentary Who Will Write Our History, about the secret group Oyneg Shabes that led the Warsaw Uprising, with executive producer Nancy Spielberg, writer, producer, and director Roberta Grossman, and consultant Dr. Samuel D. Kassow; Gov. Cuomo will deliver special remarks; and Renée Fleming will premiere a new work by composer John Corigliano, with text by Kitty O’Meara. The title of the show, “We Are Here,” comes from the Yiddish song “Zog nit keyn mol,” which means “Never Say” and is known as “Hymn of the Partisans”; it concludes: “So, never say the road now ends for you, / Although skies of lead block out days of blue. / Our longed-for hour will yet come — / Our step will beat out — we are here!”

CRIMINAL QUEERNESS FESTIVAL: GLOBAL STORIES FOR GLOBAL IMPACT

criminal queerness festival

Who: Omer Abbas Salem, Noor Hamdi, Connor Bryant, Rula Gardenier, Bahar Beihaghi, Martin Zebari, Sharifa Yasmin, Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, Amahl Raphael Khouri, Hashem Hashem, Sivan Battat, Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, Pooya Mohseni, Samy Nour Younes, Louis Sallan, Roger Q. Mason, Ianne Fields Stewart, Migguel Anggelo, Marlene Ramirez-Cancio, Adam Elsayigh, Adam Odsess-Rubin, J. Julian Christopher, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
What: Second annual Criminal Queerness Festival
Where: Dixon Place Zoom, Facebook, YouTube
When: June 13-29, free (some events require advance RSVP)
Why: National Queer Theater and Dixon Place’s second annual Criminal Queerness Festival consists of two and a half weeks of live performances, discussions, screenings, master classes, and workshops that bring together queer playwrights from around the world to fight censorship, inspire activism, and help shape a quickly changing culture. This year’s festival focuses on presentations involving four artists whose work had to be canceled or postponed at Dixon Place because of the pandemic: Chicago-based actor Omer Abbas Salem’s debut play, Mosque4Mosque; transgender Jordanian documentary playwright Amahl Raphael Khouri’s She He Me; Venezuelan-born, Brooklyn-based Migguel Anggelo’s Maid in America; and 2019 Lambda Literary Award winner Mashuq Mushtaq Deen’s The Shaking Earth. Among the issues being investigated in the plays and talks are “The Syrian Civil War and LGBTQ Communities,” “Queer Transnational Activism in the Middle East,” “Queering Trauma into Fabulousness,” and “What Does It Mean to Be Criminally Queer?” Online admission to everything is free, but donations are accepted and some events require advance registration. Below is the full schedule.

Saturday, June 13
“Creative Conversations: The Syrian Civil War and LGBTQ Communities,” with Omer Abbas Salem and Noor Hamdi, moderated by festival dramaturg Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, 2:00

Tuesday, June 16
“Creative Conversations: Queer Transnational Activism in the Middle East,” discussion surrounding Amahl Raphael Khouri’s documentary play She He Me, with Khouri and Hashem Hashem, moderated by director Sivan Battat, noon

Thursday, June 18
Master Class with Amahl Raphael Khouri on giving testimony, 2:00

Wednesday, June 17
“Queer and Disabled: Examining the imagination,” with Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, 2:00

Friday, June 19
Reading of Mosque4Mosque by Omer Abbas Salem, with Noor Hamdi, Connor Bryant, Rula Gardenier, Bahar Beihaghi, and Martin Zebari, followed by a talkback moderated by director Sharifa Yasmin, 8:00

Saturday, June 20
LGBTQ Digital Pride and Migration 2020 Festival: Livestream performance of excerpts from Amahl Raphael Khouri’s She He Me, 1:00

Sunday, June 21
LGBTQ Digital Pride and Migration 2020 Festival: Live performance of Amahl Raphael Khouri’s She He Me, with Pooya Mohseni, Samy Nour Younes, and Louis Sallan, followed by a talkback with Khouri, moderated by director Sivan Battat, 4:00

Master Class with playwright Omer Abbas Salem, 7:00

Monday, June 22
“The House of Joy: A Tent Revival for the Legendary Quarantined Children,” exercises and open discussion with Roger Q. Mason and Ianne Fields Stewart, 8:00

Tuesday, June 23
Panel discussion on LGBTQ human rights in Latin America, with multidisciplinary artist Migguel Anggelo, moderated by Marlene Ramirez-Cancio of the Hemispheric Institute, 7:00

Thursday, June 25
“Queering Trauma into Fabulousness”: Master Class with J. Julian Christopher, 7:00

Friday, June 26
Live screening of vichitra: an anthology of queer dreams, directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, with video by Kameron Neal and sound design by Jeremy Bloom, followed by discussion with Chowdhury, 7:00

Sunday, June 28
Maid in America: original semiautobiographical video by Migguel Anggelo, with screenplay by J. Julian Christoper, musical direction by Jaime Lozano, and directed and developed by Srđa Vasiljević, 7:00

Monday, June 29
Master Class with Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, 3:00

THEATER OF WAR: THE KING LEAR PROJECT

theater of war

Who: Bryan Doerries, Frankie Faison, Amy Ryan, Kathryn Erbe, Marjolaine Goldsmith, David Zayas, Jumaane Williams
What: Live Zoom theatrical production and discussion from Theater of War
Where: Zoom link sent with advance registration
When: Thursday, June 11, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: One of the best Zoom presentations of the pandemic has been Theater of War’s The Oedipus Project, in which Frances McDormand, John Turturro, Oscar Isaac, Jeffrey Wright, Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Glenn Davis, Marjolaine Goldsmith, and Jumaane Williams gave a live, powerful dramatic reading of scenes from Sophocles’s fifth-century BCE classic, Oedipus the King, from wherever they were sheltering in place. (Most of the actors chose relatively spare, blank backgrounds while Turturro opted for an anachronistic study.) The event was introduced by Theater of War cofounder and adapter/director Bryan Doerries, who also led a postshow discussion relating the play to the Covid-19 crisis.

The organization now turns its attention to the themes of caregiving and death with The King Lear Project, streaming live on Zoom on June 11 at 7:00. In the play, Lear asks, “Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: Doth Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied — Ha! Waking? ’tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?” To which the Fool responds, “Lear’s shadow.” The reading will feature another all-star lineup performing from home, consisting of Amy Ryan, David Zayas, Kathryn Erbe, Faison, Goldsmith, and Public Advocate Williams; it will be followed by a talk facilitated by Doerries with four community panelists on the subjects of aging, dementia, elder care, and family dynamics, examining the play — which Shakespeare wrote, perhaps while self-isolating, during the 1606 plague, when theaters had shut down — in context with the current pandemic.

HERE@HOME: DISPOSABLE MEN WITH LIVE Q&A

disposable

Who: James Scruggs, Kristin Marting
What: Screening of 2005 production and live Q&A
Where: HERE Arts Center Facebook page
When: Wednesday, June 10, free (donations accepted), 6:30
Why: In February 2005, James Scruggs’s Disposable Men debuted at HERE Arts Center, a one-man multimedia show that compared Hollywood monsters to African American men and examined the history of medical apartheid and the killing of black men with the support of the government, in a country dominated by white supremacy and mired in systemic racism. With the pandemic lockdown still in place and George Floyd protests continuing, HERE will be streaming the perhaps never-more-relevant Disposable Men June 10 at 6:30 on Facebook Live, followed by a discussion and Q&A with HARP artist Scruggs and HERE founding artistic director Kristin Marting, who was the presenter and producer of the original production. The show was created and written by Scruggs (Deepest Man, MELT!), who also did the video design; the lighting is by Chris Brown, sound by Jeremy Wilson, costumes by Patrice Busnel, video technical direction by Hal Eager, and score by Philip Pares.

THE ROOM PLAYS: THE BEDROOM PLAYS

The Room Plays, In A Bubble, With You featuring Simone Grossman and Robert Gemaehlich

In a Bubble, with You features Simone Grossman and Robert Gemaehlich as part of Eden Theater Company’s Room Plays

Who: Eden Theater Company
What: Short Zoom plays about isolation
Where: Zoom room
When: Tuesday, June 9, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 8:00 (followed by different productions July 9 and August 6 at 8:00)
Why: Led by producing artistic director Diane Davis and creative artistic director Cassandra Paras, the New City-based Eden Theater Company’s mission holds that by “fostering a collective of multigenerational, multidisciplinary diverse innovators, we can bridge the gap between artists and audiences of different ages, experiences, and beliefs and inspire a more authentic awareness and deeper understanding of the world we inhabit, our role in the world, and the impact of our decisions.” They are expanding their conviction that “storytelling should not be bound by convention” with their latest female-driven production, The Room Plays, the first edition of which will take place in bedrooms wherever performers are sheltering in place. On June 9 at 8:00, The Bedroom Plays will consist of The Man in the Fuchsia Mask, written by Jake Brasch, directed by Jordan Gemaehlich, and featuring Audrey Rapoport and Byron Anthony; Daeva, written by Paras, directed by Anthony, and starring Matt Pilcie and Paras; and In a Bubble, with Only You, written by Tracy Carns, directed by Davis, and featuring Simone Grossman and Robbie Gemaehlich. The three short plays, running about forty-five minutes in total, deal with the isolation and loneliness people are experiencing during the pandemic. ETC explains, “This series of short plays are at-home productions that take place in the rooms that we create for ourselves, and the rooms from which we have no immediate exit. The Room Plays provide an empathetic vantage into different experiences, different traumas, and different states of spiritual well-being while in quarantine.” ETC will move the location for the site-specific iterations scheduled for July 9 to living rooms and August 6 to bathrooms, which promise unique levels of intimacy.

THE NERVE TANK: THE ATTENDANTS 2020

Brookfield Place

Who: Admiral Grey, Bizzy Barefoot, Brandt Adams, Irene Hsi, James (Face) Yu, Julienne Marié, Karen Grenke, Mark Lindberg, Robin Kurtz, Stacia French
What: Virtual reimagining of 2011 interactive performance at Brookfield Place
Where: Arts Brookfield website
When: Live each Wednesday in June, replayed Sundays in June, free, noon – 6:00
Why: In May 2011, the Nerve Tank presented the three-day performance installation The Attendants at the World Financial Center Winter Garden, an interactive work in which the audience could text barefoot actors in dark suits, gloves, and sunglasses moving inside and around a large transparent plexiglass cube; you can see clips from the show, in which the actors respond to the texts with only their body, here. The New York City-based Nerve Tank is teaming up again with Arts Brookfield for The Attendants 2020, which will take place in the small rectangular box of the internet instead of a large cube in a spacious, lovely atrium, a different kind of confinement. Part of the #BFPLatHome program, The Attendants 2020 will be performed live every Wednesday in June (June 3, 10, 17, 24) from noon to 6:00 and will be replayed every Sunday (June 7, 14, 21, 28) at the same time. Chance Muehleck conceived the piece and wrote the lyrics; the director and choreographer is Melanie S. Armer, while Stephan Moore composed the score and designed the sound. The prerecorded voices are Annie Dorsen and Jonathan Vandenberg; the cast features original Attendants Karen Grenke, Bizzy Barefoot, Stacia French, James (Face) Yu, Robin Kurtz, Mark Lindberg, and Irene Hsi in addition to Admiral Grey, Brandt Adams, and Julienne Marié, responding from wherever they are sheltering in place, prepared to address current issues that have the whole world on edge.