the week of august 9 - 13, 2021
the customary short mid-august edition
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digital theatre
The Ojai Playwrights Conference concludes with a virtual reading of Mike Lew’s Tiny Father on August 13th at 7 PM & 10 PM. The slice-of-life comedy about parenthood in extremis, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is loosely based on Lew’s “own (not gonna lie, incredibly painful) experience with a NICU baby.”
Darkfield’s Knot: A Trilogy is available at the virtual Edinburgh Fringe through August 29th.The three-part immersive audio experience asks audiences to situate themselves in different locations — a park bench, in a car, and a room of their home — to experience intersecting, interwoven episodes revolving around a traumatic event.
Dublin-based John King and DC-based Jeremy Keith Hunter’s visual short story Side-Walks is available on demand from Solas Nua through August 15th. The 30-minute digital hybrid of literature, animation, and theatrical storytelling is about “finding yourself after a year of isolation.”
Sam Mayer’s durational performance poolboy2: maximum closure runs August 1 - 31 on Twitch and live in Austin at Crashbox. The live-streamed reality show/experimental memoir/talk show follows the alter-ego of the playwright as he “quits smoking, hangs with friends, writes in his journal, works out, packs up his Austin apartment, and, finally, breaks up with his boyfriend.”
Text and audio transcripts for Lynn Nottage and Miranda Haymon’s installation The Watering Hole are now available from Signature Theatre. The project, which ran through July 25th, consisted of “a series of 10 installations inspired in part from water itself as they flow from all directions into a larger whole…[the series explored how Signature] can serve artists and communities after the pandemic’s shuttering of theatres and a year of uprisings for racial justice.”
in-person theatre
Arturo Luís Soria’s Ni Mi Madre starts previews at Rattlestick on August 14th. Directed by Danilo Gambini, the solo performance “explores the intersection between queerness and Latinidad and lays bare the secrets, memories, fears, and celebrations of being an immigrant and first-generation American.”
Jessica Kahkoska’s Wild Fire plays August 16 - 20 at the Denver Center. The theatrical concert, inspired by oral history testimonies from 2020’s East Troublesome Fire and featuring music from Colorado folk artists, is directed by Chris Coleman.
Liza Birkenmeier’s Islander starts previews August 19th at HERE Arts Center. A collaboration with director Katie Brook, Islander “repurposes verbatim NHL commentary from the abysmal 2017-2018 New York Islanders season into a sharp comedy about white male fragility, expressiveness, and shame.”
2021-22 season updates
The Public Theater announced its 2021-22 season, with performances beginning in October. Projects include Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s new musical The Visitor (directed by Daniel Sullivan); Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s cullud wattah (directed by Candis C. Jones); Mona Mansour’s The Vagrant Trilogy (directed by Mark Wing-Davey); Shaina Taub’s musical Suffs (directed by Leigh Silverman); Suzan-Lori Parks’ Plays for the Plague Year (directed by Niegel Smith); Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady (directed by Ralph B. Peña); James Ijames’ Fat Ham (directed by Saheem Ali); and the monologue collection Out of Time from Asian-American playwrights Jaclyn Backhaus, Samantha Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka, and Anna Moench (conceived and directed by Les Waters).
here we go: the first wave of postponements
Taylor Mac’s Joy and Pandemic at the Magic Theatre has been postponed indefinitely due to the Delta variant surge. The world premiere, which was commissioned long before our ongoing public health nightmare, is partly set in September 1918 on the day of Philadelphia’s huge Liberty Loan Parade, which became an infamous super-spreader event.
Mac told the New York Times: “Timing is everything. With the rise of infections, this is not the time to engage wholeheartedly with the themes in this work.”
Berkeley Rep has also decided to delay the start of its 2021-22 season. Christina Anderson’s The Ripple, the wave that carried me home (directed by Miranda Haymon) was scheduled to open in October; it will now premiere in September 2022. The theatre will now reopen with Charles L. Mee’s Wintertime (directed by Les Waters) in November.
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Marketing & Audience Engagement Manager at The Tank: $40,000
NYC Living Wage: $51,323Development Manager, Raven Theatre: $36,000
Chicago Living Wage: $38,605Technical Director, 1st Stage Tysons: $40,000 - $45,000
Fairfax County, VA Living Wage: $57,052Director of Production, NextStop Theatre: $40,000+
Fairfax County, VA Living Wage: $57,052
