| East Side Stories 2020: Four New One Act Plays June 26 and 27 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 11:22 am EDT 06/24/20 | |
|
|
|
| EAST SIDE STORIES: INSIDE EDITION at Metropolitan Playhouse All New Plays Celebrating the Life and Lore of the Lower East Side Online readings, Week Fourteen June 26th and 27th, 2020 at 8 PM Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse will present free "screened" readings of four new one-act plays inspired by life and history in the East Village, via live stream video, with talkback to follow, on Saturday, June 26th and 27th, 2020 at 8 PM, EDT. Running Time: 60 minutes Available via Zoom at http://metropolitanplayhouse.org/ess2020zoomlinks and YouTube at http://metropolitanplayhouse.org/ess2020youtubelinks All links available at: www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse Saturday's program will also be simultaneously broadcast on WBAI Radio 99.5 FM and wbai.org Metropolitan Playhouse began presenting new one-act plays about the theater's neighborhood, the East Village, in 2003, and has offered a new crop nearly every season since. 2020 will be the 15th festival of these new works. Adapting them for stay at home viewing, the plays will be presented free, via Zoom and YouTube, as rehearsed readings. The evenings are: ARRIVALS - 2 lyrical plays about immigrating and belonging Friday, June 26th, 2020, at 8 pm "Cola'o" by Paloma Sierra music by Pedro Emanuel Franco Fraticelli directed by Gloria Zelaya starring Jorge Luis Berrios and Yazmin Morales Vicente Two lovers with contrary opinions about Puerto Rican national identity uncover how to prepare “authentic” coffee. Text in Spanish and English with supertitles. "Fulltime Active" by Bill Russell directed by Mark Harboth starring Ako, Michael Basile, Randy Cordero, and Suzanne Toren The stories of 4 residents' lives, beautifully interwoven into a theatrical fugue: a Russian labor organizer; an Italian boxing trainer; a 2nd Generation Japanese American; a young Puerto Rican immigrant. Based on interviews conducted in the 70's and 80's as a part of The Community Documentation Workshop EVOLUTION - 2 comedies about gentrification and gentrifiers Saturday, June 27th, 2020 at 8 pm "Grassroots" by Robin Rothstein directed by John Long starring Maxwell Bartel, Alia Shakira & Kim Yancey-Moore Backgrounds by Danny Licul Two undercover police discover a long-devoted patron of an East Village local well after hours on New Year's Eve, the night it closed for good. She's not ready to go. "East Village Trader Joe's" by Jessica Moss directed by Rachael Langton starring Ollie Corchado, Lianne Kressin, Jammie Patton, Sushma Saha & Perri Yaniv Backgrounds by Randy Wong-Westbrooke The diverse and active East Village Community Coalition meets to discuss the encroachment of that oxymoron: the boutique chain. They have successfully fended off many a corporate interloper, but this one... this one is different. EUGENE O'NEILL (1888 - 1953) The father of modern American drama, his works dominate the American canon, and include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), and the posthumously produced Long Day's Journey Into Night (1941). The first American playwright ever so honored, he earned the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. Dropping out of Princeton he took to the life of a seafarer, stopping in Buenos Aires, Liverpool, and New York. He held jobs that varied from secretary to gold prospector to draughtsman to mule tender to newspaper reporter. He abused alcohol, contracted tuberculosis, and nearly took his own life, but on recovery through a sanitarium in 1913, he began writing plays. A prolific author, in addition to his 26 mostly shorter works before 1920, he wrote over 20 full-length plays between 1920 and 1943, though his most ambitious project was never completed. This was a cycle of 11 plays, to be performed on 11 consecutive nights, following an American family over two centuries. A Touch of the Poet was the only play he completed of that cycle, while More Stately Mansions was a rough draft of a second. Both were published and performed after his death. ARTISTS' RELIEF Metropolitan presents these readings as a way of keeping the theater's pilot lit. They also serve to help us compensate performing artists, so particularly affected, during this long "pause." Information about the theater's ARTISTS RELIEF FUND may be found at www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/covidaid Metropolitan Playhouse is at the forefront of streaming drama with its VIRTUAL PLAYHOUSE which began on March 28, 2020, with Alice Gerstenberg's "He Said and She Said," and continued the following week with Eugene O'Neill's "The Rope," with five times the attendance. Since presenting Gerstenberg's "Hearts," April 11th, the program is simultaneously broadcast on New York's Pacifica Radio Station WBAI, 99.5 FM. For this period of social distancing, with Metropolitan Playhouse's facility closed, actors read parts to the camera from their homes, using the Zoom platform, which enables all characters in a scene to be onscreen simultaneously. Weekly readings are in progress, and the Virtual Playhouse hosts Zero Boy's COVID Cabaret--an improvised half hour in which the vocal virtuoso takes audience suggestions through Zoom and YouTube chat and turns them into outlandish and provocative scenarios every Thursday at 8 pm. The playhouse is honored and fortunate to be able to continue its miss ion of exploring America's diverse theatrical history during these trying times. The presentation of the forgotten one-act plays is an ideal way to pursue the theater's mission and extend its current season, devoted to plays and themes of DISSENT. METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE, in its 28th season, explores America’s diverse theatrical heritage through lost plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. The theater received a 2011 OBIE Grant from The Village Voice for its ongoing productions that illuminate who we are by revealing where we have come from. Called "invaluable" by the Voice and Backstage, Metropolitan has earned further accolades from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Other awards include a Victorian Society of New York Outstanding Performing Arts Group, 3 Aggie Awards from Gay City News, 21 nominations for NYIT Awards (3 winners), and 6 AUDELCO Viv Award nominations. |
|
| Link | http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse |
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | THIRTEEN’s Great Performances presents Gloria: A Life starring Christine Lahti as Gloria Steinem, Friday, June 26 on PBS - Official_Press_Release 11:23 am EDT 06/24/20 |
| Next: | BROADWAY ON DEMAND LAUNCHES NEW GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT SERIES WITH KOREAN MEGA-HIT MUSICAL "XCALIBUR" - Official_Press_Release 11:21 am EDT 06/24/20 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.022104 seconds.