this week in theater

READING OF THE KEYS BY DOROTHY LYMAN

Dorothy Lyman’s The Keys looks at life in Florida during the current health crisis

Who: Dorothy Lyman, Tim Jerome
What: Live readings of new play
Where: Zoom
When: Sunday, October 25, free with RSVP, 4:00, and Tuesday, October 27, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
Why: One of my closest friends and regular theatergoing companions has two happy places. One is any dark venue that hosts live dramas, comedies, and musicals; the other is the Florida Keys. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, she cannot fill either of those needs, but she can scratch both itches at least in a small way with a live Zoom reading of Dorothy Lyman’s new play, The Keys. The story is set in the Florida Keys during the current coronavirus crisis, as a pair of senior citizens, Margaret (Lyman) and Gil (Tim Jerome), take stock of their lives in the age of Covid-19, remembering their pasts and imagining an unexpected future. The reading is directed by Elinor Renfield and admission is free, though spaces are limited. Two-time Emmy winner Lyman is a familiar face after spending more than twenty years in soap operas, most notably All My Children, as well as starring in Mama’s Family and the one-woman show My Kitchen Wars; Tony nominee Jerome has appeared in such Broadway productions as Me and My Gal, Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, and Tarzan. It might not be a day at the beach, but what is these days?

MOLIÈRE IN THE PARK: THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES

Who: Tonya Pinkins, Kaliswa Brewster, Cristina Pitter, Tamara Sevunts, Mirirai Sithole, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Corey Tazmania
What: Molière in the Park virtual presentation in association with French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
Where: Molière in the Park Zoom
When: Saturday, October 24, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 2:00 & 7:00
Why: “Don’t worry, friend; I’m not a fool,” Arnolphe tells Chrysalde at the beginning of Molière’s The School for Wives in Richard Wilbur’s translation. “I shan’t expose myself to ridicule. / I know the tricks and ruses, shrewd and sly, / Which wives employ, and cheat their husbands by; / I know that women can be deep and clever; / But I’ve arranged to be secure forever: / So simple is the girl I’m going to wed / That I’ve no fear of horns upon my head. . . . No, keep your smart ones; I’ve no taste for such. . . . / In short, I want an unaccomplished wife, / And there are four things only she must know: To say her prayers, love me, spin, and sew.” Molière in the Park, following their popular virtual presentations of The Misanthrope and Tartuffe online over the summer instead of in Prospect Park, their usual home, is now taking on Molière’s 1662 five-act comedy, reinvented for Zoom, copresented with FIAF. And in a casting twist that would terrify Arnolphe, all the roles will be portrayed by women, with Mirirai Sithole, Kaliswa Brewster, Cristina Pitter, Tamara Sevunts, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Corey Tazmania, and Tony winner Tonya Pinkins (Jelly’s Last Jam; Caroline, or Change) as the lead cad. (The play ran on Broadway in 1971 with Brian Bedford as Arnolphe, Joan Van Ark as Agnes, and David Dukes as Horace and was made into a 1983 film by Ingmar Bergman with Allan Edwall as Arnolphe, Lena Nyman as Agnes, and Stellan Skarsgård as Horace.)

The troupe has employed unique technical elements in their virtual plays, courtesy of director Lucie Tiberghien, video engineer Andy Carluccio, set designer Lina Younes, costume designer Ari Fulton, composer Paul Brill, sound designer Daniel Williams, and animator Emily Rawson, so it should be fun to see what innovations they will bring this time around. The School for Wives will be performed live on October 24 at 2:00 and 7:00, followed by a Q&A with members of the cast and crew; French and English subtitles are available, and the show can be viewed through October 29. Next up for Molière in the Park is a rare contemporary play, Christina Anderson’s pen/man/ship, on December 12.

TEMPING

Temping is a solo piece that puts audience members to work one person at a time

The Wild Project Gallery
195 East Third St. between Aves. A & B
October 23 – November 22, $10-$45
dutchkillstheater.com/temping
thewildproject.com

Since mid-March, most of us have been stuck at home, either toiling at our desktop computers or laptops or seeking employment while unable to attend live entertainment events. Dutch Kills Theater and Wolf 359 take care of both those dilemmas with Temping, a different kind of solo show, beginning previews October 23 prior to an October 29 opening. The key conceit here is that you are essentially the performer in this unique onsite theatrical experience, one you have to leave the safe confines of your apartment to participate in. Temping takes place in a room at the Wild Project on the Lower East Side, where one audience member at a time sits alone at the vacationing Sarah Jane Tully’s cubicle, using a Windows PC, a corporate phone, and a laser printer to navigate through actuarial tables that predict lifespans, something that has become somewhat more complicated in 2020. The play is written by Michael Yates Crowley and directed by Michael Rau, with production design by Asa Wember and set by Sara C Walsh. There will be thirty minutes between each performance to allow for cleansing before the next person enters; masks must be worn at all times, and hand sanitizer will be provided. Tickets are $10-$30 for previews and $25-$45 after, based on time period, so act fast for the best spots. And please don’t take the sandwich in the refrigerator; there’s a reason it has my name on it (and not yours).

AMERICAN DREAMS

American Dreams turns the path to citizenship into an interactive game show (photo by Cherie B. Tay)

Town Hall: What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?, Monday, October 19, free with RSVP, 7:30
October 20-25, Working Theater, suggested $30
October 27 – November 1, Hartford Consortium, suggested $25
November 10-15, Marin Theatre Company, price TBD
www.americandreamsplay.com

“It’s a game. It’s a show. It’s AmERica!!!” an announcer declares at the beginning of American Dreams, an interactive online play that skewers US immigration policy and ethnocentricity in funny, clever, and, ultimately, harsh ways. With the country in the process of deciding whether to give President Donald Trump, a former reality TV star, another four years in the White House, the show is on a virtual nationwide tour, stopping October 20-25 at New York City’s Working Theater. First staged at the Cleveland Public Theatre two years ago, Leila Buck’s play has been reimagined for the internet, set up as a game show that gives one of three immigrants the chance to win American citizenship.

Cohosted by the deceptively smarmy Christian White (Jens Rasmussen) and bright and perky Sherry Brown (Buck), who are over-the-top gleeful until they turn the tide, the game show is divided into four sections: “How America Works,” “America’s Favorites,” “Aliens with Extraordinary Skills,” and “American Dreams.” Battling it out to live in the United States legally are Adil Akram Mansour (Andre Ali Andre), a chef and philanthropist from Bethlehem (“not the one in Pennsylvania”); Alejandro Rodriguez (Andrew Valdez), a former National Guard medic from Mexico; and Usman Bhutt (Imran Sheikh), a Pakistani illustrator who loves Star Trek. “For the past two seasons,” Sherry says, “we have been offering once-in-a-lifetime chances to people searching for a brighter future in the land of freedom and opportunity. And while this season we can’t be in your town halls, theaters, and auditoriums, we are so glad to be welcomed into your homes.” Chris adds, “On each show, three contestants compete for the equivalent of Columbus’s gold.” Sherry: “One lucky winner will receive, right here, tonight, immediate citizenship to the greatest nation on earth. Our online studio audience has been approved by the highest levels of our government to be the people —” Chris and Sherry: “— who choose the people.” Sherry: “So your votes will determine our contestants’ destinies, as you decide who has the chance to live the American Dream.” It’s more than their destinies that are at stake.

Bree Coffman (India Nicole Burton), deputy director of culture for the US, keeps in touch with the audience throughout. “We all have the power to help shape and control the future of this country — one citizen at a time,” Coffman explains early on. As the game continues, you’re likely to find out that these immigrants know more about America than you do, but that is not necessarily going to mean they’re on the path to citizenship as various roadblocks, arbitrary and not, interfere with their quest, mimicking real life.

Cohosts Christian White (Jens Rasmussen) and Sherry Brown (playwright Leila Buck) lead the way in American Dreams (photo by Cherie B. Tay)

Co-commissioned by ASU Gammage and Texas Performing Arts and presented by Working Theater as well as Round House Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Company, Marin Theatre Company, HartBeat Ensemble, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, and University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Center, American Dreams achieves its goal of making the show a communal experience; the audience, visible in Zoom boxes, gets to fill out surveys, ask questions, cheer, and vote. Director Tamilla Woodard (Men on Boats, La Ruta) uses split screens to make it look like the contestants are in the same studio, even though they’re beaming in from wherever they’re sheltering in place; Woodard mixed Zoom, Skype, and other platforms to create what she refers to as a “beautiful monster.” The cast has a lot of fun, especially during one segment that is heavily improvised, making each performance unique. Even at ninety minutes, American Dreams feels too long, but you might want to stick around for the talkback anyway, which offers further insight into the development of the play. At one point, a prerecorded announcement tells us, “Your participation is key to protecting our democracy. If you see something, say something. The security of the greatest nation on earth depends on you.” As Buck points out, if only it were that easy.

In conjunction with the show’s run at Working Theater, there will be a free, virtual town hall on October 19, at 7:30, held in partnership with Portland’s Boom Arts, addressing the question “What does it mean to be a citizen?” featuring a keynote by actor Carlo Alban, followed by a panel with Nura Elgmagbari of the Portland Refugee Support Group, Richard Lujan-Valerio of the Latino Network, Juanita Sarmiento of Rural and Migrant Ministry, and actor, playwright, and native communities advocate DeLanna Studi (Cherokee), moderated by North Star Fund deputy director Elz Cuya Jones. Tune in and make a difference. Oh, and vote.

THE FALL REUNION READING SERIES: SKELETON CREW BY DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

Most of the original cast of Skeleton Crew will reunite for four live readings (photo © Ahron R. Foster)

Who: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Jason Dirden, Wendell B. Franklin, Nikiya Mathis, Adesola Osakulumi, Caroline Clay
What: Virtual reunion reading
Where: Atlantic Theater Company YouTube
When: October 22-24, free (suggested donation $25)
Why: The Atlantic Theater kicks off its virtual Fall Reunion Reading Series with Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew, which had its world premiere in 2016 at Atlantic Stage 2. Four live readings will take place October 22-24 over YouTube, featuring original cast members Jason Dirden as Dez, Wendell B. Franklin as Reggie, Nikiya Mathis as Shanita, and Adesola Osakulumi as the dancer, with Caroline Clay replacing Lynda Gravatt as Faye; Ruben Santiago-Hudson is back as director. The play, which transferred to the Atlantic’s bigger Linda Gross Theater, is set at an automobile stamping factory during the recession of 2008; it is part of Detroit native Morisseau’s Detroit Project, a trilogy that also includes Detroit ’67 and Paradise Blue. In addition, on October 25 at 4:00, for “Live with Atlantic! Remix,” two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage will interview Morisseau, who has also written Pipeline, Sunset Baby, Blood at the Root, and Follow Me to Nellie’s as well as the book for Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations. The series continues November 5-7 with Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj, with Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed.

SHIPWRECK: A HISTORY PLAY ABOUT 2017

All-star cast of audio play Shipwreck rehearses over Zoom (photo courtesy the Public Theater)

Public Theater
Five-part audio presentation
Started streaming October 16, free (closed captions added by October 26)
publictheater.org

“I haven’t had a Trump-free twenty-four hours in, oh, I think it’s been over a year,” Allie says in Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017, a satiric audio drama streaming for free from the Public Theater. She has no idea what she’s in for. Shipwreck premiered in February from DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and was scheduled to run at the Public as well, but it has now been repurposed by Washburn and original director Saheem Ali for online listening, divided into three parts in addition to an introductory program note and a water cooler discussion. The show takes place in an eighteenth-century upstate farmhouse, where a group of liberal friends have gathered in the wake of James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2017. Jools (Sue Jean Kim) and Richard (Richard Topol) have invited Mare (Mia Barron) and Jim (Rob Campbell), Luis (Raúl Esparza) and Andrew (Jeremy Shamos), Lawrence (Bruce McKenzie), and Allie (Brooke Bloom) to spend the weekend at their new country home, as they agree and disagree about such topics as white privilege, Lord of the Rings, the big bad city, conspiracy theories, chaos voters, Comey’s personality, racism, Jim Jones, liberal dreams, the rule of law, and what’s for dinner. Also making critical appearances are Comey (Joe Morton), George W. Bush (Phillip James Brannon, sounding more like Barack Obama), and Donald J. Trump (Bill Camp), along with his secretary (Jenny Jules). Washburn (Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play; A Devil at Noon) gets the absurdist tone just right, nailing sarcasm and irony, hypocrisy and elitism by a group of friends who are sure they know best, especially when they find out that one of them might not have voted blue in 2016. “Who are those self-obsessed white people?” my wife called out at one point from the other room, not knowing what I was doing.

Director Saheem Ali leads online rehearsal for Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 (photo courtesy the Public Theater)

One of the key exchanges, and a terrific example of Washburn’s knack for incisive, realistic dialogue, occurs when a conversation uncomfortably turns to Black people and Trump. Allie begins, “You know who wasn’t surprised by all this? The Black people. They saw Trump coming.”

Mare: “Yeah . . .”
Andrew: “Yes, so I read in the media.”
Allie: “When we were all so freaked out, how could this happen!? They were like: Yeah . . . we know why.’ And now all heads swivel towards the Black people: What else do they know?”
Andrew: “Is that what the heads are really doing?”
Richard: “Racism, systemic racism played a part, it totally played a part obviously but big obvious scapegoats aren’t going to help us out of this situation.”
Andrew: “Okay wait wait can we hold up for a moment. ‘The Black People.’ ‘The Black People. . . .’”
Jools: “‘The Black People. . . .’”
Jim: “Nope, Allie, it doesn’t sit right.”
Allie: “I mean yes, of course it doesn’t. There’s a certain deliberate . . . tart irony there, no? Like we’re all so woke we can — I can’t, I don’t know if I can fully unpack it but no, I’m not saying ‘the Black People’ like I think it’s okay it’s so obviously not-okay.”
Mare: “So ironic racism is fine is what you’re saying.”
Jools: “Didn’t we have that little talk about using ‘unpack’ in normal conversation among actual humans?”
Allie: “Sometimes jargon is useful. . . . Black People. Black People saw this coming. That sounds weird to me like pseudo-mythic: ‘Black People,’ ‘Green People,’ ‘People of the Mist,’ ‘Zoners.’”
Andrew: “African American is an option.”
Allie: “Obviously, only African American is kind of I mean I know it’s not my place but it’s a lot of syllables and it’s a little bit formal like you’re trying too hard and I thought didn’t we have an unspoken agreement that we were as a group implicitly avoiding that brand of ultra-performative white liberalism also because there’s no distinction there and do Black people or people who are ‘black’ use the term? I’m confused about that and okay I know this is my own personal private but there’s no distinction between people who were brought here in chains three hundred years ago in the hold of a ship and and all of that and people from, like, Namibia who wandered over twenty years ago and sure it’s racist here but they have generations of intact cultural identity for back-up these are not the same people.”
Mare: “Okay, Allie . . .”
Jim: “Oh, you’ve forgotten Colonialism.”
Allie: “I mean yes, Colonialism, yes, but it’s not the same. Colonialism doesn’t eviscerate . . . ‘black people’ sounds like, flat and kind . . . yes yes you’re right Colonialism can I mean it depends on who but no but in general, yes, Colonialism, terrible but it isn’t the same it’s just not but ‘black people’ that’s . . .”
Andrew: “I kind of beg to differ . . .”
Allie: “. . . crude . . . maybe I mean crude . . . they’re — no one’s black nobody’s white it’s a built-in oppositional it’s absurdly reductive when we’re all just, when we’re really all just . . . a spectrum of tan.”

At more than two and a half hours not including the intro and postshow talk, the play requires patience on the part of the listener, especially as we’re all so bombarded with 24/7 images from television and the internet and addicted to our phones. Radio plays were once an important and necessary form of entertainment, and the Public is doing what it can in these pandemic times to bring it back, first with its presentation of Richard II in July, which suffered because of commercials on WNYC, and now with the superior Shipwreck, a history play about today, and tomorrow. Get those headphones ready.

RUSSIAN TROLL FARM: A WORKPLACE COMEDY

Who: TheaterWorks Hartford, TheatreSquared, the Civilians
What: Live site-specific theatrical digital experience
Where: Zoom
When: October 20-24, $20.20, 7:30 (available on demand October 25 – November 2)
Why: I’ve just watched the first part of Alex Gibney’s Agents of Chaos, a frightening documentary about Russian interference in American elections, primarily through troll farms spreading misinformation and disinformation over social media. Award-winning American playwright Sarah Gancher delves into that ever-growing issue in her new play, Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy. Production on the show began prior to the pandemic, so Gancher (The Lucky Ones, Hundred Days) has reimagined it as a “site-specific work for the internet,” with TheaterWorks Hartford in Connecticut and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in association with the Brooklyn-based troupe the Civilians. The play, inspired by actual transcripts from the government-owned Internet Research Agency, aka Glavset, will be performed live on Zoom October 20-24, with tickets going for an appropriate $20.20; the five performances will then be archived for on-demand viewing October 25 – November 2, the eve of the election. “The trolls are out in full force right now,” Gancher said in a statement. “I want everyone on the right and the left to be able to spot them and to see what they’re doing — or at least wonder: What happens to a democracy when the voices of real citizens are drowned out by fictional characters?” The fab cast features Danielle Slavick as Masha, Mia Katigbak as Ljuba, Haskell King as Egor, Ian Lassiter as Steve, and Greg Keller as Nikolai; the play is directed by Jared Mezzocchi and Elizabeth Williamson, with sets and costumes by Brenda Abbandolo, sound and music by Andre Pluess, and lighting by Amith Chandrashaker. In the meantime, I’ll be sitting down for the second part of Agents of Chaos; wish us all luck.