this week in theater

THE NEW GROUP: WHY WE DO IT

why we do it

Who: Cynthia Nixon, Bobby Cannavale, Derek McLane, Edie Falco, Erica Schmidt, Donja R. Love, Scott Elliott
What: Weekly discussions about the draw and power of theater
Where: The New Group Facebook page
When: Wednesdays at 4:00, May 6 – June 10, free with advance RSVP, followed by limited Zoom Q&A for $100 donation
Why: Theater companies have been coming up with unique ways to stay in touch with their audiences now that all live, in-person staged productions have been postponed or canceled for the near future. The New Group is joining the online gatherings with “Why We Do It,” a weekly conversation series hosted by company founding artistic director Scott Elliott. Every Wednesday at 4:00, Elliott will speak live online with a member of the New Group family, beginning May 6 with Cynthia Nixon, who has directed Steve and Rasheeda Speaking for the troupe. The impressive lineup continues May 13 with Bobby Cannavale (Hurlybury), May 20 with set designer extraordinaire and board chairman Derek McLane, May 27 with Edie Falco (The True), June 3 with playwright and director Erica Schmidt (Cyrano, All the Fine Boys), and June 10 with playwright Donja R. Love (one in two). All conversations are free, but advance registration is necessary. Each talk will be followed by a smaller “Drinks with” Zoom Q&A with the main guest, limited to twenty participants who make a $100 tax-deductible donation and will get a recipe for an original drink from mixologist Sammi Katz.

HERE AT HOME: THE RECEPTION

Donovan & Calderón throw a party to remember at HERE Arts Center in The Reception, which will be streamed as a live watch party on May 6 (photo by Maria Baranova)

HERE Arts Center
Facebook Live Watch Party
Wednesday, May 6, free, 7:00
www.here.org
www.donovanandcalderon.org

With theaters shuttered during the pandemic, HERE Arts Center has opened up its vaults to present previous productions on Wednesday nights, first streaming them via a live, free (though donations are accepted) watch party on Facebook before making them accessible for later viewing. On May 6 at 7:00, HERE will be showing The Reception, which was performed there in June 2017. It should be fascinating to watch it in context of the coronavirus, now that there are no in-person gatherings of any kind. Here is my original review:

This is one party you are not going to want to miss. HERE Resident Artists Donovan & Calderón invite audiences to a rather surreal gathering in the exhilaratingly funny and utterly bizarre dance-theater piece The Reception. Actor, dancer, and writer Sean Donovan and actor, director, and scholar Sebastián Calderón Bentin have been collaborating since 2003 on such cutting-edge works as Not Unclear, The Climate Chronicles, and 18½ Minutes. For The Reception, they have put together quite a guest list: master choreographers Jane Comfort and Ishmael Houston-Jones, performer and choreographer Leslie Cuyjet, actress Hannah Heller, and the well-mustachioed Donovan himself, an extremely talented comic actor who was a standout in such recent productions as the Builders Association’s Elements of Oz and the first two parts of Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming trilogy. The five fabulously dressed partygoers — the costumes are by Felix Ciprián, with Heller’s sparkling gown a particular stunner — drink, dance, nosh, and schmooze on Neal Wilkinson’s circular wooden stage, cluttered with a couch, a few chairs, a table of snacks and bottles of alcohol, and a light-up globe. Snippets of dialogue come front and center and then disappear into the background, ranging from silly jokes to more serious tales of sexism, misogyny, and ageism, as Houston-Jones tries to score with every other character in hysterical ways. Words and actions repeat, high-heeled shoes come off and are put back on, and Donovan grows ever-more desirous of the “tarty things,” all set to Stevie Wonder’s infectious “Another Star” from his groundbreaking 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life. Tension and anxiety wax and wane, stimulated by a sly little take on a fundamental horror movie trope. The fun sound design is by Brandon Wolcott and Tyler Kieffer, which is complemented by Amanda K. Ringger’s inventive lighting, especially when the story takes a creepy turn. And the ending is splendidly mad.

Hannah Heller, Sean Donovan, Leslie Cuyjet, Jane Comfort, and Ishmael Houston-Jones hold nothing back in The Reception (photo by Maria Baranova)

Codirected by Calderón and Donovan, The Reception was inspired by such classic European cinema as Alain Resnais’s Last Year at Marienbad, Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel, Jacques Tati’s Playtime, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura. It was originally titled “Abbadon,” which in Hebrew means “place of destruction” and in Revelation refers to a king who was the “angel of the Abyss,” a hellish place of confinement. The five characters are trapped in their own private sphere, alternating between being deliriously happy, then nervous and worried, concerned for their immediate future. The social-gathering aspects of the show are beautifully precise even with improvisation, expertly detailing the interaction among the bash attendees, from movement to language to facial gesture, especially since all of the performers have collaborated previously on multiple projects: Cuyjet has danced with Jane Comfort and Company since 2005, Donovan and Heller both portrayed Dorothy Gale (and other roles) in Elements of Oz, and Houston-Jones and Comfort teamed up for The Studies Project, among other collaborations, making the proceedings that much more believable no matter how strange it gets. But underneath it all, literally and figuratively, lies the unknown, a dark side from which there might be no escape. In which case, the only thing to do is to keep on partying.

THE WITCH OF EDMONTON (Live on Zoom)

witch

Who: Red Bull Theater
What: Live unrehearsed online Zoom reading
Where: Red Bull Theater website and Facebook and Vimeo
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:30
Why: In 2011, Red Bull Theater staged Thomas Dekker, John Ford, and William Rowley’s 1621 Jacobean tragedy, The Witch of Edmonton, at the Theater at St. Clement’s. The New York-based company, which on April 20 brought back the cast of its 2015 revival of Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore for a free, online, live unrehearsed reading, is now doing the same with The Witch of Edmonton, assembling most of the original cast for a virtual presentation on May 4 at 7:30. Performing from wherever they’re sheltering in place will be Charlayne Woodard as Elizabeth Sawyer, Craig Baldwin as Warbeck and Countryman, Justin Blanchard as Frank Thorney, Christopher Innvar as Sir Arthur Clarington, Carman Lacivita as Somerton and Countryman, Christopher McCann as Thorney, Amanda Quaid as Katherine, Everett Quinton as Old Ratcliffe and Anne Ratcliffe, Miriam Silverman as Winifred, Derek Smith as Dog, Raphael Nash Thompson as Justice, Sam Tsoutsouvas as Carter, and newcomers Antoinette Robinson, David Manis, and Carson Elrod, with music by Daniel Levy. In a statement, company founder Jesse Berger, who directed the 2011 production, explained, “We want to engage you and our entire community with something stimulating and of genuine value. We’re not promising a finished performance but rather a unique way to experience the rarely seen The Witch of Edmonton.” It’s free to watch, although donations are accepted. Next up in this program are live, unrehearsed readings of Red Bull’s bloody good 2016 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on May 18, its 2005-6 version of Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy on June 1, and Jeffrey Hatcher’s fab 2017 adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector on June 15.

DAYS OF POSSIBILITIES

orloff

Who: New Circle Theatre Company
What: Live Zoom performance of Days of Possibilities
Where: Facebook Live
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:00
Why: On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four unarmed college students at Kent State University during a protest against the US bombing of Cambodia. New Circle Theatre Company in New York City will commemorate that tragic event, which shook America to its core, with a live performance of Rich Orloff’s Days of Possibilities, an online adaptation of his 1989 documentary theater piece Vietnam 101: The War on Campus, for which he interviewed more than one hundred alumni of Oberlin College. Created specifically for Zoom, the new play will feature twenty actors performing from their homes; it is directed by David Kronick. In a statement, Orloff, whose other plays include Advanced Chemistry, Someone’s Knocking, Big Boys, and Chatting with the Tea Party, said in a statement, “I think the events of that era need to be remembered, not just for their historical importance, but for lessons we can use today. Days of Possibilities offers stories of hope and courage during a time of great uncertainty. To fight for what they believed in, students risked being expelled, jailed, tear-gassed, and even shot. I think we can be inspired by the idealism of that time, especially if we don’t want to accept today’s social and political problems as inevitable and instead choose to find ways to fight for a better world. The technological tools we can use today were undreamed of fifty years ago, but I like to think that dreaming and working for a better future is timeless.” On Monday night at the same time, the play will also be performed by theater companies in Tennessee, Massachusetts, Maryland, and California as well as a high school in Arizona. (If you miss the livestream, you can catch the recorded show later.)

THE MISANTHROPE (Live Performance and Q&A)

Who: Molière in the Park theater company
What: Livestreamed performance and Q&A
Where: FIAF Facebook and Molière in the Park YouTube
When: Saturday, May 2, free with RSVP, 7:00 (show will be available for viewing through May 6)
Why: Molière in the Park was scheduled to present two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur’s English-language translation of Molière’s The Misanthrope in Prospect Park May 13-23, but the coronavirus shut it down. Instead, FIAF is bringing the world premiere of this contemporary take on Molière’s seventeenth-century comedy of manners to social media, streaming live on Facebook and YouTube on May 2 at 7:00. (A recording of the show will remain available on YouTube through May 6.) Heidi Armbruster, Kaliswa Brewster, Chris Henry Coffey, Naomi Lorrain, Jared McNeill, Jennifer Mudge, Postell Pringle, and Tamara Sevunts will be performing such roles as Alceste, Célimène, Philinte, Acaste, Oronte, Arsinoé, Éliante, Clitandre, Basque, and Du Bois from their homes in New York City, Milwaukee, and Perugia. Company founder Lucie Tiberghien will direct the production, which features guest appearances by Samira Wiley and Stew. Admission to the ninety-minute show, which will be followed by a Q&A, is free, but advance RSVP is required.

#Playfrom6FeetAway

6 feet away

Who: Trip Cullman, Diep Tran, Jeremy Tiang, Catherine Coray, more
What: PlayClub live discussion
Where: Zoom meeting (link sent to participants)
When: Thursdays at 5:00, free but RSVP required (space is very limited)
Why: During the coronavirus crisis and shutdown, Obie-winning, New York City-based Play Company, aka PlayCo, has started #Playfrom6FeetAway, a super-cool initiative in which a limited number of participants read a play in advance, then have a live online discussion hosted by a special guest. It might not be a replacement for the experience of live theater, but it is a great way to keep creators and play lovers connected. The series kicked off on April 23 with Nina Raine’s Consent, hosted by director Trip Cullman. On April 30, journalist Diep Tran will lead an examination of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die, a play that I’ve seen twice, most recently in a rousing production at Second Stage. The program continues May 7 with Wei Yu-Chia’s A Fable for Now, hosted by the play’s translator, Jeremy Tiang, and May 14 with Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (the New York premiere was scheduled to begin previews March 27 at Playwrights Horizons), moderated by NYU Arts professor Catherine Coray of the Lark Play Development Center US/Middle East Playwright Exchange. The Zoom rooms are limited to a mere ten people, so keep watching PlayCo for further announcements and to snatch a coveted spot.

MCC VIRTUAL TV: BENEFIT PLAY READING OF ALAN BOWNE’S BEIRUT STARRING MARISA TOMEI AND OSCAR ISAAC

beirut benefit

Who: Marisa Tomei, Oscar Isaac, Patrick Breen
What: Livestreamed benefit play reading for MCC Theater
Where: MCC Theater YouTube
When: Tuesday, April 28, $25, 7:30; rebroadcast January 28, $5-$100, 7:30 (available through January 31)
Why: [ed. note: The below originally ran on April 26; MCC is now bringing the reading back for an encore presentation] Theaters in lockdown are coming up with unique ways to engage their audience and raise much-needed funds. MCC Theater, which opened its sparkling new Hell’s Kitchen space last year, has just announced the online initiative MCC Virtual Events, which will feature a weekly play-reading series and other online gatherings as part of its Be Our Light campaign. The program’s centerpiece takes place on April 28 at 7:30, an MCC Virtual TV benefit reading of Alan Bowne’s 1987 Beirut, about a woman quarantined on the Lower East Side with an STD in a dystopian future. The original production kicked off MCC’s one-act play festival; it will be performed live online by Marisa Tomei and Oscar Isaac, with a cameo by Patrick Breen. “A few weeks ago, as our shared experience of the new ‘normal’ sunk in, isolated from loved ones, I couldn’t stop thinking about Alan Bowne’s moving and prescient play,” Tomei said in a statement. “Creating the role of Blue in 1987 for MCC’s one-act festival was an experience that I’ve long treasured at a time that felt like MCC and I were both ‘being born.’ There are obvious parallels between the ‘plague’ in the play and the situation we are experiencing now.” In a later Facebook post, Tomei added, “A response to the AIDS crisis, poetically and hilariously written by the late Alan Bowne . . . it’s the second play I ever appeared in on the New York stage. It’s raunchy and my parents fled the theater when they came to see it lol. . . . Maybe this piece of writing helps us process some feelings.” The early-bird $5 and $15 tickets are sold out, but you can still catch the show for $25. On May 13, MCC Virtual Events will launch Live Labs: One Acts, weekly readings on Wednesdays at 5:00 that will feature works by such playwrights as Robert Askins, Aziza Barnes, Peter Hedges, C. A. Johnson, Matthew Lopez, and Talene Monahon. MCC will also host the free panel discussion “Creative in Quarantine — Finding Inspiration in Isolation” on April 30 at 11:00 and a Let’s Engage open-mic night on May 7 at 8:00.