Produced by the Player’s Ring Theatre An original play by Irene Kelleher With Emily Karel Directed by Peter Josephson Presented by Glass Dove Productions
October 2 – 11, 2020 105 Marcy Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 Player’s Ring on Facebook
Critique by Kitty Drexel
Portsmouth, NH — According to an email press release from Player’s Ring Theatre in New Hampshire sent on September 8, the company will open its doors to the public beginning on October 2 for its production of Mary and Me by Irene Kelleher.
The company closed its doors in March due to the pandemic. It is reopening for live performance after making adjustments for audience safety. These include a new air handling and ventilation system, reduced capacity, social distancing at six feet, a health check at the door, and a mandatory mask policy.
The theater seats 75 patrons at capacity but only 33 seats are for sale to ticketholders. Only bottled drinks will be for sale. Seat assignments will be allocated by the Player’s Ring box office.
Production manager Margherita Giacobbi said in the press release, “Our number one priority in our decision to reopen has been the safety of our artists, volunteers, and audiences. We are following all State and CDC guidelines to ensure a safer environment (emphasis mine).”
August 13 & August 14 at at 8PM Starlight Square 84 Bishop Allen Drive Cambridge, MA 02139 Puppet Showplace on Facebook CST on Facebook
Review by Kitty Drexel
Cambridge, MA — Starlight Square is the brand, heckin’ new stage within Central Square intended for public performance, art and community brought to us by the Central Square Business Improvement District, Flagg Street Studio, and Boyes-Watson Architects. The performances are FREE thanks to their sponsors (although some dance classes are at a fee because teaching artists deserve to get paid). On Friday, August 14, we masked our faces and girded our loins to attend Sarah Nolan’s Judy Punches Back.Continue reading →
BOSTON/ZOOM — Boston’s theatre journalism scene is a barren wasteland of white maleness. The desperate cries of BIPOC performing artists and designers for accurate representation are carried by winds off of the Atlantic ocean to diversity-parched cities and towns across New England: where are the critics of color?
Critiquing and reviewing circles have remained steadfastly white for the last few decades. Out of the current eleven members of the Boston Theater Critics Association, six are white men, five are white women.
The Front Porch Arts Collective launched the Young Critics Program in spring 2019 in partnership with WBUR the ARTery. It is the only independent training opportunity specifically geared towards young BIPOC journalists in New England. Boston-based director, dramaturg, educator, writer, and collaborator Pascale Florestal is the woman in charge. Continue reading →
Jessica Armijo Sabillon, right, with her family at O’Malley State Park in Chelsea. (L-R) Daughter Michelle, 13, her husband Reymer and daughter Adriana, 17. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Produced by Apollinaire Theatre Company
Part of Apollinaire in the Park 2020 (Online Edition): Chelsea People
Directed by: Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Music directed by David Reiffel
Composition by Allyssa Jones, David Reiffel, and David Rivera
ZOOM — How well do you know your community? Your neighbors? Friends? In our daily interactions, or lack thereof, we each hold a story within us worth telling, waiting for the right moment, or perhaps, the right people to tell.
In Apollinaire in the Park 2020: Chelsea People, the theatre challenged itself to create original plays and music based on interviews by community members nominated by the city’s leading community organizations: GreenRoots and the Chelsea Collaborative. The series ended with the story of Jessica Armijo. Continue reading →
“What do you call an anti-vaxxer in the 1920’s? …Dead!” – Edith Shlivovitz
Trigger warning: screen kissing
YOUTUBE — Edith VS. Quarantine: 89 & One Tough Cookie opens on Edith Shlivovitz up to her elbows in household detritus for donation, ropes of pearls swinging around her neck, plastic-framed glasses matching perfectly her cheetah jumpsuit. Edith is a character: she won’t take any of your crap. She’s stir crazy and has no more fucks to give.
EVQ is what happens when a one-woman-show has reached peak performance. Edith, a widowed, Jewish, octogenarian housewife from New York who hasn’t left her apartment since March, is over the top archetype of old lady.
Miller’s character shoots through Zoom, past the door of your bedroom and into the street like porn on an iPhone at a family reunion. Edith is holding her tits, listening to “Memory” and quoting Deepak Chopra. As the late Joel Schumacher said of his movie disasters, “nobody pays to see under the top.”
EVQ is a an emotional journey. Folx who don’t enjoy a bit of the absurd with their raunch won’t get this show. Edith’s antics read like a peculiar Only Fans site for gawkers with very particular kinks. Edith references her dead husband Winston, chats with her taxidermied cat Clementine, and reenacts her favorite scenes from the thee-atre.
Edith treats you, her guest, to several photo montages. She pitches her app idea, quotes Anaïs Nin’s erotica, and segues to her reality TV show. That’s what I remember from before I blacked-out from the silliness.
Edith VS. Quarantine is not high art. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, either. It is a character sketch that depicts one woman going as far as she can go because the rules no longer apply. These are unprecedented times, and Edith is no longer at the mercy of society’s rules. If that isn’t inspirational, I don’t know what is.
My sincere apologies to Miller re: review tardiness. The pandemic kills productivity like a mother.
Next performance of Edith VS. Quarantine: 89 & One Tough Cookie: Friday 7/24 at 7:30pm
FestivalPVD runs July 19 – August 1, 2020 Information about the 2020 festivalHERE FringePVD onFacebook
ZOOM/HOWLROUND — Let’s be clear: Waiting For Kim Lee is not a play; it’s a rant, forced into a dialogue. I hate it when people screech from the steps of a soapbox and call it art (David Mamet* comes to mind). I also hate the superficial media representation-discussion that seems to be the only thing Asian American artists ever talk about.
That was fine in 2016, but right now, we’re dying of COVID-19 at higher rates than the national average and getting hate-crimed for America’s pathetic epidemic response. We’re struggling to keep our businesses afloat, and protesting for our right to exist, and for Black lives. Complaining about parents and how many auditions you’re getting right now seem like outdated and out of touch problems.
It would be one thing if Waiting for Kim Lee had anything especially insightful or new to say about it, but this play just recycles the same few talking points that have already been rehashed by every Buzzfeed article for the last five years. Not only are they stale, but they are also narrow-minded and miss the point. Continue reading →
A virtual presentation over Zoom
May 18, 2020, 7:30PM
A fundraiser and awareness campaign for The Phoenix Sober Community
Please donate to the campaign HERE
Written by Cassie M. Seinuk
Directed by Christopher Randolph
Sound design by Patrick Greene
Turner played by Michael Underhill
Johanna played by Melissa deJesus
Palmer played by Eliott Purcell
Stage Directions by Alex Leondedis
Critique by Kitty Drexel
ZOOM — I reviewed Eyes Shut. Door Open.four years ago at Warehouse XI in Somerville, MA. This response to the May 18 reading does not supersede the 2016 critique. It exists in addition to it. It is critical to examine theatre’s adaptation to online performance.
One of the new rules of Zooming is to make your bed. If you insist on streaming from your bedroom, make your bed. Anyone watching you is already judging you on your household aesthetics (or lack thereof). Inviting viewers into your bedroom means sharing an intimate part of you. They will imagine you in that naughtily unmade bed. They will see your unwashed sheets and rumpled comforter and judge your hygiene. Better to make your bed than to feed the trolls. Never feed the trolls.
Speaking of rules. Necessity is forcing actors to develop new techniques for online streaming. Monday’s performance of Eyes Shut. Door Open revealed some mighty useful technical skills in its performers and sound technician. There was a lot to learn from this reading. Continue reading →
Thursday, May 7, 2020, @ 7PM
A Virtual, Free Event Via Zoom
Critique by Kitty Drexel
New York City — “This translation is bananas,” said my Thursday night viewing companion in response to Bryan Doerries’ translation of Oedipus the King presented by Theatre of War Productions on May 7. Indeed, Doerries’ colloquialized translation of Oedipus was nontraditional. Thursday night’s live performance in three parts maneuvered the classical text between conventional expectation and contemporary acting styles. Sometimes it successfully drew parallels from Ancient Greece (429 B.C.E) to modern culture. Other times, modern vernacular against the theatre practices of Ancient Greece. Continue reading →
Here is the latest list with online community happenings and be-ins.
Zoombombing is a threat. Please keep yourselves safe by implementing security measures against these fuckboi trolls.
Articles for context: The Verge,”Zoom adds new security and privacy measures to prevent Zoombombing.” The New York Times, “‘Zoombombing’ Becomes a Dangerous Organized Effort.” Buzzfeed News, “Here Are 8 Quick Tips To Keep You From Getting “Zoombombed” By Trolls”
Keep washing your hands, stay at home, and know that you are necessary and loved,
Kitty Drexel
Queen of the New England Theatre Geeks
Boston Theater Marathon XXII: Special Zoom Edition– Boston Playwrights’ Theatre offers features free readings of ten-minute plays by New England playwrights in collaboration with New England theatres, via Zoom, April 1-May 17. They are excellent!
Central Square Theater – Central Square Theater is extending its online run of Pipeline! It’s available to watch until April 12. Get your TICKETS before it’s too late!
HowlRound has oodles of online content by theatremakers to watch and it is FREE, whether streamed or recorded. Please go to the site for details.
Liars & Believers – LAB is sharing The Huns: a radio playby Peter Papadopoulos. Directed and edited by Jason Slavick. The Huns is twelve minutes long and the silliness we need in these dire times.
Luminarium Dance Company– Artistic Director Merli V. Guerra’s The One I Keep (2013), performed by long-time company member Jessica Chang, is now available to watch online via YouTube.
New England New Play Alliance – New Play Alliance has a newsletter with information on local New England playwrights, podcasts, online events, and giveaways! Subscribe HERE.
Rockettes Dance Class: The Radio City Rockettes offer live dance classes on Instagram every week beginning on April 2 at 12PM EST. Additional classes will take place on successive Thursdays at noon.
Trinity Repertory Theatre – Rhode Island’s Tony Award-winning theater is generating digital content and creating virtual events and classes, so that “the show goes on.” Content is being delivered through its social media channels and is aggregated at
*Registration for all adult and kid’s classes and/or the knitting circlecan be found HERE.
*Streaming of the movie I Am A Seagull by directors Brian Mertes, Melissa Kievmanis, and The Chekhov Project is available to steam until April 15 by clicking HERE.
*Virtual tickets are available here for a streamed version of Asolo Rep’s production of Into the Breeches!, which had its world premiere at Trinity Rep in 2018. Available through April 14.
WGBH, ArtsEmerson, Huntington Theatre Company – WGBH will present a special broadcast of Mala, a poignant drama written and performed by local playwright and performer Melinda Lopez. This award-winning play will air on WGBH 2 and YouTube TV on Thursday, April 9 at 9 p.m.
Following the broadcast, ArtsEmerson will host a pre-recorded online conversation between playwright/performer Melinda Lopez and director David Dower at ArtsEmersonBlog.org.
Below is a continuation of last week’s list. New England area theatre companies are keeping busy. And so should you! Many of the opportunities from last week are still active and thriving. Please check those links.
Keep washing your damn hands, getting enough exercize, Zooming your friends. Stay home.
All our love from six feet away,
Kitty, Queen of the New England Theatre Geeks
Apollinaire Theatre Company – ATC hosts Apollinaire at Home! It’s a free online play & film script reading gathering! Apollinaire at Home is hosted by your Apollinaire favorites, and the cast includes You!! Readings for the week are posted on Apollinaire’s main page on Tuesday evening/ Wednesday morning. Readings will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30, and Sunday “matinee” at 3:00.
Bonnie Duncan and the Gottabees – For children of all ages, Bonnie Duncan & the Gottabees give you a few moments out of your (crowded!) day where you can enjoy being together as a family with puppets and music. A familiar, underpants-stealing-squirrel makes a cameo.
Boston Theater Marathon XXII: Special Zoom Edition – Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (BPT) presents “Boston Theater Marathon XXII: Special Zoom Edition,” featuring ten-minute plays written by New England playwrights and presented by New England theatres via the video conferencing tool Zoom, April 1-May 17. Readings will begin each day at 12 noon and will last approximately 15-minutes. Audiences will need to download the free Zoom app to participate, and it is recommended they call in a few minutes before “curtain” time.
Central Square Theater – Central Square Theater has made available for streaming a video recording of its acclaimed production of PIPELINE. The recording is available today through April 5, 2020. Details on how patrons may purchase access the recording is included. TICKETS.
CompanyOne – C1 has its new C1 “New Work #socialdistancing Community” form. Please drop your ideas there. Company One Theatre is postponing the remaining productions of Season 21, Clare Barron’s Dance Nation and Inda Craig-Galván’s Black Super Hero Magic Mama. Both productions will shift to 2021 and become part of Season 22.
Upcoming from C1: Resident playwright Kirsten Greenidge is launching a series of online Open Writes. Kirsten will hold space for folx who want a communal, but quiet, energy to support their writing. The first is scheduled for Saturday April 11 (time tbd), and will be co-hosted with David Valdes. C1 will send out a formal announcement with a video link as the date approaches. Please watch the C1 website for updates.
Post-Meridian Radio Players – PMRP makes available “The Mysterious Traveler” on their Soundcloud for listening. They ask that you please enjoy this thrilling story of the gentleman thief, Arsene Lupin. Auditions with PMRP’s summer will be announced on their website.
The Umbrella Arts – The Umbrella Arts Gallery has provided wider virtual access to exhibitions from their three gallery spaces at The Umbrella.
Aperture: The annual group show featuring more than fifty Studio Artists, viewable as a 360 Virtual Tour, and with works available for purchase through Artcld.
One Day I Will Walk Into The Umbrella: The Black Box Gallery exhibition of drawings created by Justin P. Douglass while incarcerated in Concord and in Norfolk.
Gallery 3: An exhibition of mixed media works by Cynthia Katz.
#TBT: Just AddedLyle Lovett Video– As we continue to digitize various Umbrella programming, we’re pleased to share for the first time a video excerpt of last fall’s amazing benefit concert by Lyle Lovett. The video was wonderfully produced with high-quality sound by video professional and Umbrella volunteer, Bob Greim.
The Multicultural Arts Center – The Multicultural Arts Center has created a virtual gallery for Cambridge students, teachers, parents, and community members to showcase its K-8 Young Artist exhibition.
TC Squared – In response to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, TC Squared has launched a new online reading series: VOLUME UP Virtual Play Readings. Videos can be found on its YouTube channel.Facebookand Twitter has the most up-to-date info.
