this week in theater

CELEBRATING TERRENCE McNALLY: EVERY ACT OF LIFE

Who: Jeff Kaufman
What: Celebration of the life and career of Terrence McNally
Where: PBS American Masters on ITVS OVEE
When: Wednesday, August 19, free with RSVP, 8:00
Why: Emmy and four-time Tony-winning legend Terrence McNally died of Covid-19 complications on March 24 at the age of eighty-one. On August 19 at 8:00, PBS’s American Masters series will be celebrating the life and career of the theater giant with a live presentation by Jeff Kaufman, who wrote, directed, and produced the 2018 documentary Every Act of Life, which I called “a lovely and loving look at playwright and activist Terrence McNally, a compelling film about chasing one’s hopes and dreams, refusing to back down, and fighting for what’s right personally and professionally, onstage and off. Kaufman speaks extensively with McNally, who is forthcoming about his career and his sexuality, which included relationships with Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein and several men who died during the height of the AIDS crisis.” The event will feature film clips, discussion, and a live, interactive Q&A. You can read my full review here and check out my interview with Kaufman here.

UNFINISHED WORK: FINISH THE FIGHT

Who: Harriett D. Foy, Zora Howard, Q’orianka Kilcher, Leah Lewis, Chelsea Rendon
What: Virtual play about women’s suffrage
Where: New York Times online
When: Tuesday, August 18, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: The Nineteenth Amendment might have given women the right to vote, but there is still a lot of work to do, including ending voter suppression particularly of people of color. On August 18 at 7:00, the New York Times will premiere the new play Finish the Fight, adapted by Ming Peiffer (Usual Girls, i wrote on ur wall and now i regret it) from the 2020 picture book Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers and the Times staff. The show stars Harriett D. Foy as Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Howard as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Q’orianka Kilcher as Zitkála-Šá, Leah Lewis as Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Chelsea Rendon as Jovita Idár and is directed by Whitney White (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, What to Send When It Goes Down). Upon registering, you can submit questions for the creators that might be answered in a Q&A following the show.

THEATRE FOR ONE: HERE WE ARE

Who: Candis C. Jones, Carmelita Tropicana, DeLanna Studi, Eisa Davis, Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Mahira Kakkar, Nikkole Salter, Patrice Bell, Rebecca Martinez, Regina Taylor, Russell G. Jones, Shyla Lefner, Stacey Rose, Tamilla Woodard, Taylor Reynolds, Tiffany Nichole Greene, Zuleyma Guevara
What: Microplays performed for one person at a time
Where: Theatre for One online
When: Thursdays, August 20 – October 29, free with advance RSVP, 6:00 – 7:30 (reservations available the Monday before the show at 10:00 am)
Why: Since 2010, Tony-nominated set designer Christine Jones has been presenting Theatre for One, short plays performed for one person at a time inside a mobile four-by-eight-foot repurposed musical equipment container, at such locations as Times Square, the Brookfield Place Winter Garden, Zuccotti Park, the Signature Theatre, and the Grace Building. With the pandemic lockdown, Jones and Brookfield Place are taking the show online, reimagining its motto of “Intimate Exchanges in Public Spaces” for private spaces, where specially commissioned plays by BIPOC women about intimacy and isolation at this challenging moment in history will be staged in computer boxes, for one audience member at a time, sitting in the confines of wherever they are sheltering in place. “Here We Are” is also being held in conjunction with the hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, but a century later, voter suppression, particularly of people of color, is still a major issue.

Co-artistic directors Jones and Jenny Koons said in a statement, “American theater is facing both a historic crisis and a historic opportunity: the COVID-19 crisis and the opportunity to fundamentally address white supremacy in our culture. A spectrum of responses is essential to create lasting change in the fight against systemic racism. The Black Lives Matter and We See You WAT movements, and all of the theater artists fighting racism in our community, inspire us. ‘Here We Are’ is our vision of American theater: one where a vibrant chorus of the most innovative and eloquent artists are centered to share their voices. Theatre for One is made by many. We are committed to creating intimate exchanges in equitable digital and physical spaces.”

The all-star roster for “Here We Are” includes playwrights Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Carmelita Tropicana, DeLanna Studi, Regina Taylor, Nikkole Salter, and Stacey Rose, directors Tiffany Nichole Greene, Candis C. Jones, Rebecca Martinez, Tamilla Woodard, and Taylor Reynolds, and actors Russell G. Jones, Mahira Kakkar, Patrice Bell, Shyla Lefner, Zuleyma Guevara, and Eisa Davis. Eight microplays (three of which are Pandemic Fight, Here We Are, and Before America Was America) will be performed Thursday nights from 6:00 to 7:30 (with additional, later shows some evenings), August 20 through October 29; free tickets will be available each preceding Monday at 10:00 am. There will be some interactivity, so have your computer audio and camera at the ready.

FROM THE ARCHIVE — COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #139: HAIR 50th ANNIVERSARY (with live Q&A)

La MaMa is livestreaming it 2017 fiftieth anniversary celebration of Hair (photo courtesy La MaMa)

Who: Chris Kapp, Michal Gamily, James Rado, Galt MacDermot, Michael Butler, Annie Golden, Andre De Shields, Ellen Foley, Walter Michael Harris, Melba Moore, Natalie Mosco, Jill O’Hara, Peppy Castro, Dale Soules, Shaleah Adkisson, Lauren Elder, Shelley Ackerman, Debbie Andrews, Andy Berger, Richard Cohen, Dave D’Aranjo, Nina Machlin Dayton, Magie Dominic, Aaron Drescher, Merle Frimark, Ula Hedwig, Antwayn Hopper, Rev. Marjorie Lipari, Thayer Naples, Allan F. Nicholls, Robert I. Rubinsky, Charles Valentino, Balint Varga, Jared Weiss
What: Archival livestream of 2017 performance and live Q&A
Where: LaMaMa and Facebook Live
When: Saturday, August 15, free (donations accepted), 11:00 am
Why: On October 1, 1967, a little rock opera by James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot opened at New York City’s brand-new Public Theater, the first show by living artists that New York Shakespeare Festival founder Joe Papp produced. Known as the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, Hair has propelled generations to stand together, challenge the status quo, celebrate multiculturalism, and work for peace. Fifty years after the Summer of Love, La MaMa, on January 21, 2017, gathered dozens of actors who had performed in the many iterations of the show, from the original off-Broadway version to productions around the world and the 1979 film, for a tribute concert as part of its Coffeehouse Chronicles series, which explores the history of off-off-Broadway.

The presentation featured such stars as Annie Golden, Andre De Shields, Ellen Foley, Walter Michael Harris, Melba Moore, Natalie Mosco, Jill O’Hara, Peppy Castro, and Dale Soules singing songs from the musical; the evening was hosted by Chris Kapp and Michal Gamily and included an interview with Rado and McDermot. On August 15 at 11:00 am, La MaMa will livestream that performance in its entirety — you can get a taste by watching videos of De Shields singing “I Got Life” and Moore performing “Aquarius” — followed by a live Q&A with the eighty-eight-year-old Rado. As revolutionary as Hair was, it’s a shame that so much of its narrative about such social ills as white male dominance, militarization and war, racism, homophobia, and government overreach is still so relevant today, but the music is so energizing and exhilarating, maybe it will spur you to keep fighting the good fight, now more than ever, while having a great time.

BOLD 2020 TEN MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

Who: Black theater creators
What: Short plays with talkbacks
Where: BOLD 2020 (link sent after registration and prior to event)
When: August 14, 21, 28, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: With Kamala Harris being selected as Joe Biden’s running mate, the prominence of Black women in America takes another giant leap forward. Expect that to be part of the discussion when BOLD, an organization that “seeks to create a culture in which Black womxn are one another’s allies,” presents “BOLD 2020,” a virtual edition of its ten-minute play festival, consisting of six new works written and directed by Black women and streamed for free over three successive Friday nights. “Black womxn will change the world! The restoration of our culture is dependent on the amplification of the Black womxn’s voices,” BOLD cofounder Destinee Rea said in a statement. “In this year alone we have seen the ways Black womxn are using their voices to inspire, empower, and shift culture. We are in desperate need of their stories being contributed creatively, grafted into the American canon.”

August 14 will feature Brittani Samuels’s In My Arms, or Under My Foot (with Anastacia McCleskey, Tiffany Denise Hobbs, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Trevor Hayes) and Agyeiwaa Asante’s Dainty (with Amber Iman, Zurin Villanueva, Capathia Jenkins, and Candice Marie Woods), directed by Kristolyn Lloyd; on August 21, Chanel Carroll’s Choices and Lakhiyia Hicks’s Sermon I Wish I’d Heard will be directed by Bianca LaVerne Jones; and the festival concludes August 28 with Kristen Adele Calhoun’s The Oldest Town in Texas and Jazmine Stewart’s Queen Nanny, directed by Jones and Tavia Riveé Jefferson. Each night, the two plays will be followed by a live discussion with the creators and others.

THE NEO-POLITICAL COWGIRLS: ANDROMEDA’S SISTERS

Who: Blythe Danner, Susie Essman, Tamara Tunie, Catherine Curtin, Joy Behar, Laura Gomez, Ellen Dolan, Florencia Lozano, Welker White, Portia, Kathryn Grody, Nehassaiu DeGannes, Dahlia Lithwick, Amy Spitalnick, Roberta Kaplan, Kerry Kennedy, more
What: An Arts and Advocacy Forum in Two Parts
Where: Zoom link sent with ticket purchase
When: Friday, August 14, 7:00, and Thursday, September 3, 5:00, $25-$120
Why: In June 2019, the nonprofit organization the Neo-Political Cowgirls presented “Andromeda’s Sisters,” what they called a “Two Day Gala of Powerful Arts and Advocacy” at Guild Hall. The event featured workshops and one-act readings by an all-star lineup of actresses performing monologues by female-identifying playwrights. The cast is now reuniting for a virtual restaging and expansion, beginning August 14 at 7:30, with Blythe Danner as accused Salem witch Goody Garlick in a work written for her by Lucy Boyle; Catherine Curtin as a wife who discovers her husband is cheating on her in a monologue written for her by Joy Behar; Florencia Lozano as the other woman in Dipti Bramhandkar’s The Funeral; Laura Gomez as a woman who visits a sex shop in Bramhandkar’s Brown Girl’s Guide to Self-Pleasure; Welker White as the title character in Lynn Grossman’s BITCH; Ellen Dolan as a mother and a grandmother in Sarah Bierstock’s MAD (Mothers and Daughters); Tanya Everett’s One Thousand Miles, about a relationship webinar; Portia reading the late poet June Jordan’s “A Poem About My Rights”; a movement piece by Mia Funk; and two extracts from choreographer Vanessa Walters’s ongoing “Ripening” project.

Founded in 2007 by Kate Mueth, the Neo-Political Cowgirls “are committed to making work for women and about women — to creating a space where women and girls from all walks of life can share their experiences, joys, concerns, and spirits through professional dance.” The gala gets its name from the legend in which Princess Andromeda, captured by Poseidon, is saved by the daughters of the God of the Sea, leading to the idea that sisters should seek to help one another in these difficult times. As the NPC website asserts, “When we ‘swim’ to help our sisters, even if it may go against our own best interests in the moment, it’s astounding what can happen for all of those involved.” The second part takes place on September 3 and focuses on advocacy, with journalist Dahlia Lithwick interviewing Amy Spitalnick of Integrity First for America and litigator Roberta Kaplan about their upcoming court case against neo-Nazis; a cocktail hour; Kerry Kennedy giving the keynote address about fighting femicide; and Gomez, Curtin, and Lozano reading from Kennedy’s 2000 book, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World. Tickets are $25 ($50 with donation) for the monologues and readings at both parts and $120 for those in addition to the cocktail hour and access to breakaway rooms with some of the invited guests.

DIGITAL DISCOVERY FESTIVAL — ROBERT WILSON: LECTURE ON NOTHING

Robert Wilson’s adaptation of John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing will stream August 12 as part of National Sawdust’s Digital Discovery Festival (photo © Lucie Jansch)

Who: Robert Wilson
What: “Innovation”: Volume 14 of National Sawdust’s Digital Discovery Festival
Where: Live@NationalSawdust, Facebook Live
When: Wednesday, August 12, free, 6:00
Why: Bold and daring theater and opera impresario Robert Wilson has been creating cutting-edge works since the late 1960s, from The Black Rider, Faust, Woyceck, and The Life and Death of Marina Abramović to Alice, Einstein on the Beach, Hamletmachine, and Letter to a Man. He’s a master of combining stunning visuals with ingenious audio in mind-blowing productions that push the boundaries of what theater can be. So he’s a natural choice to take part in National Sawdust’s fourteenth volume of its Digital Discovery Festival, the theme of which is “Innovation.”

On August 12 at 6:00, the Williamsburg-based club will present Texas native Wilson’s Lecture on Nothing, his adaptation of John Cage’s 1950 text, in honor of the twenty-eighth anniversary of Cage’s passing on August 12, 1992, at the age of seventy-nine. The hourlong piece debuted in August 2012 at the Ruhrtriennale Festival in Germany, with Wilson dressed in all-white clothing and makeup, surrounded by textual excerpts from the work and a cluttered floor. “I am here and there is nothing to say,” Cage’s speech begins. “If among you are those who wish to get somewhere, let them leave at any moment. What we re-quire is silence; but what silence requires is that I go on talking.”

The Digital Discovery Festival has previously featured such themes as “Spirituality,” “Social Change,” “Rebellion,” “Activism,” and “Virtuosity,” with new and archival concerts and master classes with Vijay Gupta, Vijay Iyer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sxip Shirey, Tania León, and others. “Innovation” runs August 10-14 and also includes concerts and/or conversations with Jenny Hval, Trimpin, and Matthew Whitaker. All shows are free and are archived if you miss the livestream.