Tag: Virtual Theater

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Red Bull Theater To Feature A Zoom Reading And Plus Streaming Their Recent Production of The Alchemist!

I have touted Red Bull Theater’s skills at readings via Zoom in a number of previous posts and now they are going to grace us with a new one! This time it is John Marston’s The Wonder of Women. AND they are offering an on demand streaming version of their recent live performance: The Alchemist. Both offerings are pay want to can!

Here are the details and I urge you to sign up for both of them!!

“The more cold fate, the more thy virtue burned”

Sensational melodrama, overt eroticism, and splashes of wry wit color John Marston’s grimly dark Jacobean tragedy–inspired by events from Roman history. A dauntless princess is tested in a crucible of moral absolutes, ruthless ambition, and utter depravity. After her wedding night is interrupted by the onset of war, Sophonisba emerges from a series of conspiracies with heroic virtue as the “just shame of men” and multi-faceted “wonder of women.”

Directed by Nathan Winkelstein

Featuring Ro Boddie, Jason C. Brown, Robert Cuccioli, Cara Ricketts, Derek Smith, and Sarin Monae West

Additional details here…includes a bio of the author as well. Although this is pay what you can, you do have to make a reservation regardless. There will be a live reading and then the recorded reading will be available on line for a limited time:

This event will premiere LIVE on Monday, January 31, 2022.

A recording of that livestream will be available until 7:00 PM EST on Friday, February 3, 2022

A Side-splitting, Screwball FARCE of Magical Proportions.

London. 1610. It’s plague time again. When a wealthy gentleman flees to the country, his trusted servant opens his house to a pair of con artists and sets up a den of criminal capitalism. Claiming alchemical powers, the quick-witted trio fleece an onslaught of greedy sheep with their virtuosic ability to improvise amidst increasingly frantic comings and goings. It’s comic gold with dupes, double-dupes, duels, disguises, and a lucky flea named “Lewis”.

This new version of Jonson’s rowdy comedy classic is adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Jesse Berger – ran Off-Broadway for strictly limited engagement from November 7-December 15, 2021.

Streaming On-Demand Available from February 1 – February 14 Only.
Pricing subject to change.

I am grateful that Red Bull Theater is streaming The Alchemist since I didn’t have the opportunity to travel to New York to see the live performances. So you can bet that I have my reservations placed for this unique streaming event!

Details on the play and reservation process are here!

I hope you have the opportunity to experience this fine theater group and you enjoy these streamed events. Wonderful entertainment for a cold winter evening.!

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Red Bull Theater’s Zoom Reading of: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

I have always found Pericles to be the most confusing, most confounding, most difficult, and most troubling of any of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. It is at once fantastical and absurd and just completely unbelievable even compared to other dramas of the period. And despite the Red Bull Theater‘s mastery at performing readings in Zoom and Kent Gash’s masterful direction, they weren’t able to dissuade me of my opinion.

And they assembled a marvelous cast…again. And all of the principle characters shone through!

But I have to give special note to Grantham Coleman, who plays the title role of Pericles. With the limited environment provided within a Zoom window, we sense and feel all of the various emotions and situations sorely suffered by Pericles. A truly masterpiece of ‘acting’ in this reading format. Bravo! His performance alone was worth overcoming my befuddlement around this play.

For me the other standouts are Callie Holley as Marina, as long suffering as her father, Pericles himself and the multi-roled Jordan Mahome, particularly as Leonine and Lysimachus!

It is not uncommon for large cast plays with a large number of small roles, for an actor to play more than one role. It is confusing enough on a stage when costuming and scenic location provide tells for who is who and where we are. It is far more difficult in a Zoom setting where costuming is at a minimum and there are no scenic changes to provide that bit of extra identifying context. I found it particularly confusing in Pericles…and although Red Bull does its best to label the Zoom windows with a character’s name, they weren’t able to do it as completely here as in the past.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

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Gower/Cerimon | Michele Shay

Antiochus/Simonides/Boult | Timothy D. Stickney

Pericles | Grantham Coleman

Philemon/Diana | Shirine Babb

Lysimachus/Thaliard/Leonine | Jordan Mahome

Helicanus/Pandar | Bhavesh Patel

Cleon | Craig Wallace

Dionyza | Mahira Kakkar

Thaisa | Kimberly Chatterjee

Bawd/Lychordia | Caroline Clay

Marina | Callie Holley

Clown 1 | Edward O’Blenis

Clown 2 | Anthony Michael Martinez

The reading itself was only available for a limited time as all previous Red Bull Theater readings have been, so as of this writing it is gone. There, however, are other videos available related to this presentation!

And Red Bull Theater is now back for the fall with in person theater, so if you are in the neighborhood, check out their new season! But I hope that doesn’t mean that these readings will come to an end. Being a thousand miles away from their home base, these readings are a remarkable touch base to their remarkable theater.

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American Players Theatre: Christopher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent

When you first read parts of the American Players Theatre description of Christopher Fry’s A Phoenix Too Frequent, you feel you might be about to experience a challenging tragic drama:

In ancient Greece, Dynamene is prepared to die from grief over the death of her husband and has barricaded herself, fasting, in his tomb. She has brought her faithful servant along to die with her (a plan that said servant is not 100% on board with).

But I have taken that entirely out of context and Christopher Fry has instead provided us with a witty understated comedy that plays off classic sources from Homer to Sophocles to of course, Shakespeare! Instead we find ourselves roaming from troubled to amused to relieved…as the somber circumstances play out via Fry’s immaculate verse…to the captivating human interaction…laced with humor in character definition, an absurd situation, and his carefully manipulated clever English! It’s all a delight until the crisis appears when all seems lost. But as with most classics, there is a deus ex machina of sorts and life and love prevail. So that covers the play…but again from the APT:

Here we have the classic “boy-meets-girl, boy-dies, girl-meets-handsome-soldier-in-the-first-boy’s-tomb-while- waiting-to-die-with-her-faithful-servant” story. It may sound ridiculous. And it is. But youth is often a ridiculous ride, and it’s hard to be hopeless for long when you’re on it. Feel free to laugh with them as they attempt to find their way in the literal dark, with a bellyful of wine and all the earnest, wobbly assurance of people dealing with death just as they’re learning to live life. Quirky and Greeky and oh so funny, with a deceptively deep story, this one promises a delightful time

screen capture by Ed Heinzelman: we need darker vowels

Now our story revolves around just three characters: our widow, Dynamene played by Phoebe Gonzalez, her handmaiden, Doto played by Tyler Meredith, and our handsome stranger, the soldier, Tegeus played by Christoper Sheard. These three weave the words into actions that tell the story with complete awareness of the absurdity of the situation and cleanly emphasize the humor in the text. Director Keira Fromm has them interacting in and around the minimal stage with a certain grace…even during the various crises and entanglements shall we say. It works on every level and certainly invites us to stay engaged with the players, the story. and the action. And of course the emphasis on the humor seems invisible until it subtly reaches our conscious funny bone.

And the minimal stage couldn’t be better suited to the action, the deceased’s crypt, benches, and the entrance are all clearly defined and perfectly appropriate to an undisclosed but clearly ancient Greece. Thank you Jeffrey Kmiec! And the blue lighting was dramatic, ethereal, and unobtrusive all at the same time. Something that I wouldn’t have ever considered….so thank you, Jesse Klug!

Tylelr Meredith as Doto: photo courtesy of the American Players Theatre

The opening scene quickly introduces us to the world weary and street smart Doto who gets a lot of the early laughs and chuckles as she lays out her predicament. All worked around a restlessly sleeping Dynamene (how Ms. Gonzalez manages to do this without laughing is funny in itself…Ms. Meredith get a similar ‘respite’ later but gets to do it out of sight of most of the audience instead of center stage! ). So you want to feel for Doto right away and it is a great deal of fun to listen to the rather unique English she employs and the street cred she exhibits when Tegeus ‘bursts’ on the scene! Bravo Ms. Meredith!

Christopher Sheard as Tegeus, Phoebe Gonzales as Dynamene; photo courtesy of American Players Theatre.

And the pas de deux between Dynamene and Tegeus is magic. Not only the language but the dance itself as they struggle to engage and keep their distance and engage while moving about the set. There isn’t even a more convincing scene in Shakespeare! The timing, looks, leers, restraint, and finally surrender to love all works to perfection. Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Sheard amplify those emotions without our noticing any effort and with our full approval. And it makes the coming crisis that more shocking and poignant when it comes. I won’t discuss it any further.

Given the feel of the poetry, the period, the geography, and the story, this is plainly a ‘classical piece’, and more appropriate to this season in particular as it follows a similarly toned and previously presented Iliad and the other current production of Sophocles Oedipus. This seems like a prime central focal point of a ‘Greek’ triad!

A Phoenix Too Frequent runs through October 3, 2021 and tickets are available for the in person presentations at the Touchstone Theatre or to stream online!

left to right: Christopher Sheard as Tegeus, Phoebe Gonzalez as Dynemene, and Tyler Merideth as Doto; screen capture by Ed Heinzelman

you fall easily into superlatives…