Home Office Created & Written by John J King & Ramona Rose King A J-RexPlays Production Quick, Fun & Dirty, for the People www.J-RexPlays.com Venmo: @JRexPlays
Review by Kitty Drexel
ASTORIA , NY — Creators and Boston community members John J. King and Ramona Rose King moved to New York City! During a pandemic! Home Office: Season Two follows their adventures in their new city. They find work, new friends, and opportunities all within a two-block radius.
A summary from YouTube: Home Office returns for a second season, following Mona and Jonathan as the couple moves to New York City mid-pandemic and struggles to get jobs, forge friendships, and take on their most collaborative project yet.
The second season is brief. It’s five episodes. The first season was was twelve. The stakes are higher but the circumstances are just as twee. Watch them navigate their relationship in a minuscule Astoria apartment without killing each other. As John says in episode three, “It’s nice!”
Also available to stream:
Mr. Parent presented by Theaterworks Hartford Based on stories from Maurice Parent Playwright: Melinda Lopez Conceived with and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian Video Multimedia Production Jared Mezzocchi Associate Video Editor Katerina Vitaly ASL Video Editor Cassandra Saulski Audio Mix/Mastering Matt Berky, Massive Productions
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.
Like you, we at the New England Theatre Geek are starting to go stir-crazy during these times of social distancing #COVFEFE19. Below is a small collection of links to streaming content, classes, and performances to occupy your days.
We wish you all the best! Please wash your damn hands, get enough exercize, Zoom your friends, and stay home as much as you can.
All our love from six feet away, Kitty, Queen of the New England Theatre Geeks
The List
Apollinaire Theatre – Last week Apollinaire graciously hosted readings via Zoom. The scripts are still up on their main page.
Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) – The FeministFuturist exhibit is now online. Performances have been suspended. They have a page FULL ofOVID-19 relief opportunities for all artists. Please check it out… But first, FeministFuture!
The Brattle Theater – The Brattle is streaming their Boston Women’s Film Festival on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Cloud Cafe – Tune into Cloud Cafe tonight at 6 p.m.! Each night of this performance series will be curated by a different Boston based artist–all of whom have been forced to cancel gigs and tours to protect the community from COVID-19. Each curator will hand-pick members of their community who have been directly impacted by the pandemic to build creative performances that bring people together to heal and find joy.
Flat Earth Theatre Company – The radio play Lovecraft’s Unnamable Tales is free to listen to on YouTube and SoundCloud. We know the unknown is terrifying, but you can at least experience the indescribable virtually, from the comfort of your own attic laboratory full of unheard-of monsters.
HowlRound Events – HowlRound is streaming their events. Please check their site for more info.
John J King is hosting Johnny Cakes a weekday dance break at 12:45PM ETD.
Penobscot Theatre Company – PTC will livestream its production of Safety Netthrough March 29. It runs 90 minutes with no intermission. The playbill is available online. Tickets may be purchased HERE.
Metropolitan Opera – Daily streaming of opera for all – If you can beat the rush and the site doesn’t crash from the opera fervor!
MIT Arts – MIT is posting home concerts to its Facebook and Twitter account:s starting on March 20. Please check these links: FacebookadTwitter. Free to watch and listen!
Two actors on stage Only one has seen the script The other one is new every night And there is no rehearsal What happens?
Thursday, June 13 @ 8pm: The incomparable Georgia Lyman Friday, June 14 @ 8pm: The indefatigable Alex Simoes Saturday, June 15 @ 4pm: The indefinable Noah Simes Saturday, June 15 @ 8pm: The indubitable Kim Klasner
Thu, 6/20 @ 8pm: The Remarkable Cheryl Singleton Fri, 6/21 @ 8pm: The Redoubtable Margarita Martinez Sat, 6/22 @ 4pm: The Rexalicious John J King Sat, 6/22 @ 8pm: The Revolutionary Margaret Ann Brady
Theatre on Fire presents An Oak Tree June 13 – 22, 2019 Charlestown Working Theatre 442 Bunker Hill Street Charlestown, MA 02129 TOF on Facebook
Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre Written by John J King Directed by Stephanie LeBolt In collaboration with the Boston Public Library Playwright-in-Residence program and part of the Push Project Residency at Boston Center for the Arts
Warning: Parts of this play require audience interaction. If that isn’t your thing, sit in the back.
(Boston, MA) Martha’s (b)Rainstorm: A Boston Fairytale pays homage to our fair city through Native myth, pop culture references, and pseudo–science. It tackles the very real threat of climate change on our Massachusetts shores through democratic process. Fresh Ink’s production is still in its nascent stage but it a beautiful show bursting with possibility.
Presented by OperaHub
1828 music by Heinrich Marschner
1828 German libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück
1828 libretto based on the play Der Vampir oder die Totenbraut by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter
2014 arrangement by Moshe Shulman
2014 libretto by John J King
Music direction by Lina Marcel Gonzalez
Stage direction by Christie Lee Gibson
(Boston) Der Vampyr is a decadently feminist adaptation of Marschner’s original. This new arrangement presented by OperaHub tackles the difficult truths of male entitlement, victim blaming and rape culture that all women face on a daily basis. If you, the reader, do not believe in gender equality, this opera is not for you. If you believe that rape culture is not a pervasive truth all women face, then this opera is not for you. It would be best if you pulled your fedora over your eyes and stopped reading this review now. Continue reading →
FREE ADMISSION!
In the spirit of accessible opera for all, tickets are absolutely free, and may be reserved in advance online here!
BOSTON, MA – OperaHub broadens their ambitions with their June 2014 production: a new adaptation of Heinrich Marschner’s 1828 gothic opera DER VAMPYR. Though the work had its American premiere at the Boston Conservatory in 1980, it has not been seen in Boston since. Several companies around the world have produced it in recent years, including the American Symphony in Spring 2013 and the New Orleans Opera last fall. Hailed by the New York Times as a “gem of an opera,” it falls stylistically between Weber’s DER FREISCHUTZ and Wagner’s FLYING DUTCHMAN, with a thematic debt owed to Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI.
In the original version of DER VAMPYR, Lord Ruthven, the blood-sucker in question, has not been sucking his fair share of blood. The other vampires in his coven gather at the witches’ dance to charge him with taking three virgins by the end of the third day, or he will perish as a mortal. Tragedy ensues in the local village until the vampire is vanquished. Continue reading →
The Compilation Album (featuring Queen Geek, Kitty Drexel on All’s Well That Ends Another Day)
(Boston) Review by Craig Idlebrook
When I was in college, a friend of mine decided the best birthday gift for his jock roommate would be a striptease, and he would not be dissuaded. As the birthday party was winding down, my friend burst into the party wearing nothing but terrible lingerie and he proceeded to slowly strip. His roommate laughed as the joke began, but he grew increasingly alarmed, realizing that my friend might go the Full Monty. The jock began to plead with my friend not to go all the way (this was Indiana in the nineties, after all), but with a big build-up, my friend took it all off anyway. It has become the most memorable striptease in my (cough) semi-extensive memory. Continue reading →
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have landed in Denmark. To your left you will see Elsinore Castle. To your right is the MI6 Headquarters. Enjoy your stay!
From Denmark With Love opens tonight!
We hope to see you this weekend or sometime soon. In the meantime: Check out a preview article about us in the Boston Metro! Check out the same on WBUR! Get your copy of THE ALBUM: 11 original James Bond theme songs by local Boston Bands! (SHAMELESS PLUG: featuring Queen Geek Kitty Drexel)
by John J King
Directed by Barlow Adamson
Starring: Daniel Jones, Bridgette Hayes, Janelle Mills, Chelsea Schmidt, Bob Mussett, Terrence Patrick Haddad, and Brett Milanowski
COMING IN MAY 2013: FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE
The Hamlet/James Bond MashUp You’ve All Been Waiting For!
by John J King
Directed by Barlow Adamson
Starring: Daniel Jones, Bridgette Hayes, Janelle Mills, Chelsea Schmidt, Bob Mussett, Terrence Patrick Haddad, and Brett Milanowski
