Intermission Talk

Producers Insure That

The Show Must Go On

 

by Tony Vellela

Theater for the New City continues its series of free afternoon ‘walk-by theater’ on Saturday, November 28, at 2 PM, staged in its set shop and visible from East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues.  “Open Tho’ Shut” marks the third installment of the series, which has been designed to demonstrate small theaters’ readiness and desire to physically reopen, and to counteract the perception, based on formal Broadway, that legitimate theaters can’t open safely.  Performances demonstrate an Off-Off Broadway aesthetic that could permit smaller theaters to open safely.  The shop has been outfitted with an elaborate set by Mark Marcante and Litza Colon, with full stage lighting and a four-mic sound system.  Performers are required to be tested before their performances, and their temperatures are taken before they perform.  Masks are provided to any audience member who arrives without one.

Speaking about a new agreement that makes it possible for theatre-lovers across the country to enjoy streamed stage productions by producers and theatres during the pandemic, Actors Equity president Kate Shindle stated “This gives people who make theater the ability to innovate in ways that they need in order to survive.”  The agreement is between AEA, the actors and stage managers union’s 51,000 members, and SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 people who are employed in film and television.

The agreement, which expires on December 31, 2021, outlines clear restrictions.  Equity will cover performances recorded for digital distribution that replaces or supplements a live audience.   SAG-AFTRA regulations outlaw work that is more in the nature of a television show or movie, which features scenes shot out of chronological order, or includes visual effects or other sequences that could not be replicated in a live theater.

Theaters forced to close by government order due to the potential spread of the Covid-19 virus among people gathered together in close contact, in an indoor location, have been forced to adjust their business to use streaming services to ticket-holders or subscribers.  The practice has been widely adopted.

Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company [Steppenwolf.org] plans a season of virtual productions.  It kicks off with James Ijames’ “What Is Left, Burns.” Directed by Whitney White, the play stars Steppenwolf’s K. Todd Freeman and Jon Michael Hill as former lovers who reconnect during various points in their lives.

The producing group The 24 Hour Plays will stream the live performance of their 20^th anniversary gala, featuring more than two dozen actors, including Josh Hamilton, Hugh Dancy, Marcia Gay Harden, Genevieve Angelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Rachel Dratch.  They will perform pieces by Rachel Axler, David Lindsay-Abaire, J. Holtham, christopher oscar pena, Jonathan Marc Sherman and Lauren Yee.  The event, on Tuesday, December 1^st at 8 PM, supports the group’s several non-profit programs, including the 24 Hour Plays National Fellows, a free professional intensive for young theater artists.  More information, including ticket-purchasing, can be found at www.24hourplays.com.

Interactive online performances for children from five to nine are being presented via Zoom, on Fridays in December at 4 PM, by Adventure Players Live!  Scheduled are “Finding Our Way Through Outer Outer Space” [December 4^th], “Searching for Twig in the Deep Deep Ocean” [December 11^th] and “Telling Stories of Holidays and Hopes for the New Year: Playback Theater {December 18^th].  APL is a project of PlayMusicNYC LLC, fiscally sponsored through Fractured Atlas.

Broadway’s Carolyn Mignini [“Fiddler on the Roof”], plays Mrs. Claus in “Undertaking Christmas,” a new musical by the American Theater Wing’s Jonathan Larson Grant and MAC Award winner Joel B. New, just in time for the holidays.  This musical comedy loving homage to the Hallmark Channel movie genre is about a gay man who returns to his Midwestern roots and unearths love in the most unlikely of places, and runs approximately 75 minutes.  A second opportunity to enjoy this new work will be on Saturday, December 19 at 8 PM by Benjwelo Theatricals.

“I am a huge fan of the cozy tropes baked into every Hallmark Channel holiday movie,” stated New.  “That said, LGBTQ characters in leading roles who also break the ‘conventionally attractive’ mold are nowhere to be found.  ‘Undertaking Christmas’ is a joyful musical comedy that incorporates gay romantic leads, body positivity, and, of course, death by fruitcake poisoning.”

Recorded live at Brooklyn’s Scholes Street Studio, the curtain goes up on Saturday, December 19 at 8 PM, streamed exclusively on Stellar.  Ticketholders will be able to stream the show on any computer browser [laptop or desktop], mobile web, the Stellar Android or iOS app, or on TV via the Stellar app on Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku.  Tickets are $10.  The Nice List Package includes a digital playbill storybook featuring original illustrations by Krissy Fox.    Ticket sales and additional information are available at www.stellartickets.com.

If you’ve been homebound for the past several weeks, perhaps your mind wandered into the back-burner subject of auditioning for a role yourself.

Red Bull Theater, lauded by Time Out New York magazine as ‘the city’s gutsiest classical theatre,’ is offering two free events that reawaken that dream.  A one-day acting workshop ‘The Classical Monologue’ explores possible answers to questions often asked about the Bard’s work, bolstering your preparedness to audition for classical roles, although the advice given would easily translate into any audition situation.  On Saturday, December 5^th, from 11 AM to 6 PM, Obie-Award winner Chukwudi Iwuji [‘The Low Road,’ the Public’s ‘Othello’] and casting director Stephanie Klapper will conduct a one-day only acting workshop.  Klapper’s frequent or long-time collaborators include the Mint Theatre Company, the Cincinnati Playhouse, Capitol Repertory Theater and Primary Stages.

Red Bull Theater is also presenting A RemarkaBULL Podversation – A Conversation on the ‘Tent Scene’ from Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar,’ [Act 4, Scene 3], “You Have Done That You Should Be Sorry For,” via livestream on Monday, December 7^th at 7:30 PM.  They will take questions live through YouTube.  It will spotlight Red Bull’s Artistic Director Daniel Sullivan, who has directed more than forty productions on Broadway, and scores of productions Off Broadway and regional theatres around the country, and Nathan Winkelstein, the company’s Associate Artistic Director, who has directed productions around the country, including The Folger, the Tobacco Factory and Shakespeare Theater Company of New Jersey.  They will read passages from the scene and discuss subtext, character and friendship in Shakespeare.  The event is free, but advance reservations are recommended.  Details on both events can be found at www.redbulltheater.com.

“Inside the Wild Heart,” an interactive video presentation by Group POD BR of a theatrical adaptation of the work of Clarice Lispector, one of Brazil’s most important figures, will play a three-week limited engagement online with a special software, www.gather.town .  On the site, audiences will be able to navigate through the virtual space and enjoy three floors of video performances, photography, and audio.  Performances begin on Friday, November 27 and continue through Sunday, December 20.  “Clarice Day,” celebrating Lispector’s centennial, will include a talk-back with cast, panels, readings and discussions.  Tickets for all performances are available at www.Group.BR.com.

AfterPlay

Stars in the House, to benefit the Humane Society of New York, will be presenting a special episode on Friday, November 27 at 8 PM.  It will be featuring Broadway stars [and their ‘people’] Sierra Boggess, Lilli Cooper, Darius de Haas, Andy Karl, Jose Llana, Jesse Mueller, Orfeh, Paige Price, Kate Rockwell, Doug Sills and Will Swenson, on the Stars.in.the.House YouTube channel and www.StarsintheHouse.com.   Stars in the House airs new episodes with stars of stage and screen on Mondays-Saturdays at 8 PM, to benefit the Actors Fund and various charities, including those that provide services to those most vulnerable to the effects of Coronavirus [Covid-19] . . .Kind Music Group, in conjunction with Damon and Elliott ”Christmas/80^th,” a celebration starring Dionne Warwick in a live virtual event, will take place on Saturday, December 12^th at 7 PM.  Joining her will be Johnny Mathis, the Oak Ridge Boys & John Rich, Billy Ray Cyrus and Aloe Blacc.  For information, go to www.officialdionnewarwick.com . . . and if you had been planning to see the revival of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” starring Sutton Foster, Hugh Jackman, Jayne Houdyshell, Shuler Hensley, Jefferson Mays and Marie Mullen, which would have been running now, but got 86’d due to Covid-19, take heart.  The production is back on the books, scheduled to begin previews on April 7^th, 2021, and opening on May 20^th.  So if you’re coming from ‘Gary, Indiana’ by way of the ‘Rock Island’ line or ‘The Wells Fargo Wagon,’ you’ve got plenty of time to get out the brass polish for your ‘Seventy-Six Trombones.’  ‘Good Night, Ladies.’

On Book

Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” won the 1958 Tony Award for Best Musical, beating out “West Side Story.”  To learn more about this remarkable playwright, check out ‘And There I Stood with My Piccolo,’ from the University of Minnesota Press, which chronicles his life, growing up in Mason City, Iowa, and going on to playing the flute with John Philip Sousa’s band and the New York Philharmonic.  He also penned “But He Doesn’t Know the Territory, from the same publisher, telling the story of his bird’s eye view of the making of his iconic musical . . . history is being made in a rather dark way as Broadway remains shuttered, due to the fear of spreading the virus.  One man who spent more than fifty years’ working for and with the unique Shubert family was Gerald Schoenfeld.  His memoir, ‘Mr. Broadway,’ a title drawn from the nickname he was known for, reveals the inside family of that theatrical producing family, and kicks off with a foreword by Hugh Jackman.

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TONY VELLELA wrote and produced the PBS series about theatre ‘Character Studies.’  His play “Admissions,” winner of the Best Play Award at the New York International Fringe Festival, directed by Austin Pendleton,  is published by Playscripts.  His play “Maisie Drags Grover to the Theatre” is published by ArtAge.  He has written several other plays and musicals.  As an entertainment reporter, he has written for Parade, The Christian Science Monitor, Dramatics Magazine, and dozens of other publications.  He won the CableAce  Award-winning  ‘Test of Time’ for Lifetime Television.  He has taught theatre classes at HB Studio, Columbia University’s Teachers College, and other institutions.  He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

CARMEL CAR & LIMOUSINE SERVICE, in business since 1978, has been selected as the official transportation company for Intermission Talk.  Its wide variety of services, including theatre packages, are available at carmellimo.com, the Carmel App, or at 212 – 666 – 6666.

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