the week of April 26-30, 2021
the end of the cruelest month
You’re reading Nothing for the Group, a newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes. If you like this kind of thing:
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Identity design by Elizabeth Haley Morton.
online theatre
The Kilbanes’ rock opera Weightless is now available to stream at WP Theater. Inspired by a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the “visual concept album weaving together ancient myth and indie rock” is directed by Tamilla Woodard.
Sofya Levitsky-Weitz’s Intuitive Men is now available to stream from The Tank. Directed by Jake Beckhard, the “remote yoga class that’s also a remote yoga play” stars actor Brendan Dalton and playwright Will Arbery.
Angelina Weld Grimké’s Rachel streams May 4-7 at Roundabout Theatre Company. The virtual reading, directed by Miranda Haymon, is part of the Roundabout Refocus Project, a multi-year initiative seeking to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon.
Betty Shamieh’s As Soon as Impossible streams May 1st at 8PM ET at TheaterWorks Silicon Valley. Directed by Samer Al-Saber, the reading is part of the theatre’s New Works Online Festival.
Lucy Alibar’s Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up streams May 3-30 at Round House Theatre. The solo play from the Beasts of the Southern Wild writer is directed by Ryan Rilette.
A filmed version Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride is now available from Studio Theatre. The “travelogue through thrill and loss” stars Dina Thomas and is directed by Joanie Schultz.
in-person theatre
The Black femme theatre artists collaboration Afrofemononomy will offer a number of in-person presentations this May across New York City. The works include an exploration of Kathleen Collins’ unproduced one-acts, which will synchronize with a world premiere drive-in production by Oakland Theater Project on the West Coast, and Eisa Davis’ The Essentialisn’t.
2021 season updates
Actors Theatre of Louisville announced the virtual Humana Festival. Projects include Michael Yates Crowley’s Block Association Project (directed by Michael Rau and it closes tomorrow!), Idris Goodwin’s Ali Summit and Christina Acosta Robinson & Ken Robinson’s Still Ready (both directed by Robert Barry Fleming), Candrice Jones and Ruffin’s Beyond the Crossroads, the video game Plague Doctor: Contagion 430 BCE-2020 AD (designed by Alex Bezuska, with a story by Fleming and Jenni Page-White), and the music performance series Louisville Sessions: Full Jam.
Colorado New Play Festival announced its in-person June line-up. The festival includes Gamal Abdel Chasten’s The Black Mann Act The Trial Of Jack Johnson A Vaudeville Show (directed by Monteze Freeland), Max Posner’s The Pool (directed by Ken Rus Schmoll), Karen Hartman’s The New Golden Age (dramaturgy by Erin Daley), and #HereToo by Barbara Pitts McAdams and Jimmy Maize.
The inaugural Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival announced its line-up. Projects include Melda Beaty’s Thirty, Eureka Lewis’s Justin’s Side, Cynthia G. Robinson’s WHAT IF…?, and Julie Taiwo Oni’s The Break and will be produced by partner theatres Detroit Public Theatre, St. Louis Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Bishop Arts Theatre Center.
Steppenwolf announced its 2021-22 in-person season. The season, which will coincide with the opening of the theatre’s newly renovated space, features plays written by ensemble members. Virtual projects include a new play by Tarell Alvin McCraney (directed by Amy Morton), three short plays by Tracy Letts, and Tina Landau’s filmed play The Light Remains. Live performances will resume in November with Letts’s Bug (directed by David Cromer), the world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s King James (directed by Anna Shapiro), Yasen Peyankov’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull, and McCraney’s Choir Boy (directed by Kent Gash).
Speaking of Steppenwolf: the Chicago theatre site ReScripted published two statements from former video producer Lowell Thomas and playwright Isaac Gomez about their experiences of inequity at the theatre and the failures and neglect of Steppenwolf’s leadership and they are worthy of your time.
assorted news
Florence Welch, Martyna Majok, and Thomas Bartlett are writing a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Rebecca Frecknall will directed the Broadway-aimed production. (You knew something splashy like this was coming when the book entered the public domain this year.)
John J. Caswell, Jr.’s Wet Brain won the 2021 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award from Williamstown Theatre Festival. Caswell received the $10,000 prize as well as the $10,000 Jay Harris Commission to write a new play. The finalists were At The Very Bottom Of A Body Of Water by Benjamin Benne, Noise In The Line by Matthew Capodicasa, Shadow/Land by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, and On Sugarland by Aleshea Harris.
things I read this week
I would rather do bath salts and rip my own face off than write one more word about Scott Rudin. (I haven’t read the NYT article yet because we all have limits!) But I did read Tavi Gevinson’s excellent essay on why art doesn’t need tyrants and why the theatre and film industries need to remake themselves after Rudin’s downfall:
“Some actor friends have noted the privilege required to speak out and get blacklisted by Scott or other decision-makers in his loyalty network. But there’s a difference between being literally unable to afford something financially and then being unable to “afford” it because one hopes to be as successful as possible. For me to act like I can’t afford to support those coming forward would be to act out of careerism and call it powerlessness. And while I understand those who feel they are not in a position to jeopardize their projects, I am wary of a logic that insists change can only happen if people in privileged positions enact it; then, change might not happen at all. Change happens because people with nothing to lose and who the system has rejected act out of necessity and integrity. And because people who do have something to lose decide to disrupt the capitalist cycle that keeps them invested in violent abusers. All of us together take risks and make sacrifices and create power in numbers.”
“Both Hollywood and theater are skilled enough at convincing audiences that they are ancient empires with immovable traditions and norms. They’re not. They are industries. They have always had to adapt, whether to new forms of technology or audience’s appetites…I can focus on my industries’ corruption and hypocrisy, or I can remember that previous change came about because people said the unspoken things and were met with support.”
