NYT article about Arlekin Players and The Orchard:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/theater/arlekin-players-theater-the-orchard.html

Runs June 7 - July 3, in-person ($39-125) and streaming ($29), plus fees.
(Not sure about the fees for in-person tix, but the streaming option seems to carry only a single, refreshingly modest-as-these-things-go $1.65 "convenience fee" bringing the total to 30 bucks and change).

The opening has been pushed forward a week from the originally-announced May 31 due to Covid cases in the company.  Sending positive thoughts to Arlekin and the affected company members.

For at least a decade before SJS's death, I have from time to time wondered who would end up playing him in the inevitable posthumous solo play, and --more queasily still, at the time -- when.

Barely a year after, it turns out, though my vague sense of Hershey Felder's works -- admittedly sight unseen, thus far -- is that it might be a slight stretch to call them plays (or, in the Covid-streaming era, movies).

Regardless: Felder is, to no one's surprise, doing a Sondheim thing this December.  (Streaming tickets here; they want you to purchase the entire streaming "season", including pieces about Chopin, Liszt, Verdi and Mozart, among others; but as far as I can tell, that ticket link is just for the Sondheim "Premiere Musical Film Event" on December 18, plus a week of on-demand access... all for a mere $50).

54 Below is livestreaming their ninth annual Sondheim-themed Halloween cabaret, "Into Sweeney Todd's Woods," tonight at 7pm ET.

(I've long gotten the impression that 54B's programmers aim for a certain soft-edged "unfussy" wit, let's just say, when it comes to titling these things.  I guess it's part of their brand, though it's probably also played a very minor role in keeping me away from their house-blend performances for lo this past decade-plus.  Someday I suppose I'll finally make it to one of their "Sondheim Unplugged" evenings or something.  Heaven knows, living here, and especially after the lost pandemic year without live-in-person entertainment of any kind, I ought to show some gratitude for the existence of a place like 54B -- one of very few remaining venues of its kind,  however tourist-ified -- and should go there more often than once every few years).

This year's edition features Stephen DeRosa and Kerry O'Malley (Into the Woods 2002) and Sarah Rice (Sweeney Todd OBC), among many others. 

$25 plus a $3.50 "ticketing fee", livestream only (this won't be, or remain, or become, available afterward for viewing on demand).

https://54below.com/events/livestream-into-sweeney-todds-woods-feat-stephen-derosa-sarah-rice-more

Speaking of reasons to visit 54 Below either in person or virtually, La LuPone is taking it over for the holidays, including a New Year's Day livestream.

$40 to stream (again: livestream-only, no on-demand), plus that $3.50 ticketing fee.

(By way of comparison: seeing the show here in person would, depending on date and seating location, set you back between two and three hundred bucks per person including fees, food and drink.  So, on balance, being able to see it for like 80% off that price, from home, in your jammies, sounds like a triple-win to me).

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Because The Importance of Being Earnest needed a sequel...



Streamable through Sunday 3/26, tickets at https://nyclassical.org/frank.  A $10-minimum donation gets you a link to stream the show as often as you like, whenever you like -- until 10pm Sunday (ET, I'm guessing?), after which the streaming link will no longer be valid.

I haven't seen it yet myself (I'll probably watch it tonight), but even mixed reviews can't entirely extinguish the appeal of Christine Pedi as Lady Bracknell.

 The Fourth Messenger—
This is a concert version of a musical by Tanya Shaffer and Vienna Teng that reimagines the Buddha legend in a contemporary setting with a flawed female Buddha figure.  It was filmed at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Manual Cinema has begun production on a new piece:

"Part eco-fiction, part haunted-house tale, Future Feeling is our new short film about a family on the island of Nantucket bracing for a hurricane headed their way. As the storm comes closer and the power goes out, strange things begin to happen in the house that force the family to reimagine their relationship with nature and leaves them forever transformed in the process."

No release date has been announced yet.  But in the meantime, their work can also be seen in Goliath, the new Showtime documentary about Wilt Chamberlain.

MC's own website, incidentally, is looking more elegant than ever.  My one tentative quibble would be the use of all-caps headings and pull-quotes in a particularly playful display font whose capitals, specifically, make that choice a slightly iffy one for legibility.  But the overall organization, imagery and design of the site give it both an intuitive simplicity and a visual sumptuousness befitting their growing and well-deserved success.

Nosferatu will stream live from the TiQ closet for ten performances, October 27-31 at 7pm and 9pm each night.

Tickets (and 3D glasses) can be ordered here, $31 including fees.

Quote from: scenicdesign71 on Oct 02, 2023, 07:07 PMNosferatu will stream live from the TiQ closet for ten performances, October 27-31 at 7pm and 9pm each night.

Tickets (and 3D glasses) can be ordered here, $31 including fees.



Oooo!!  Skirball!!  They have such interesting programming.  

Preoccupied by my own horrors, I missed TiQ's Halloween treat last week -- but it will reportedly be available on YouTube sometime early next year.  In the meantime, the NYT loved it:

Nosferatu, a 3D Symphony of Horror: A Lip-Smacking Scare (NYT Critic's Pick)



(Ed.:  As of February 2024, Nosferatu can be watched on YouTube in 2D here, or in 3D here.  The latter requires a pair of old-school anaglyph [red & blue] 3D glasses, which TiQ will send you for a $3 donation [through Fractured Atlas, instructions on the YouTube page], or they're easy to find online.

There is also a behind the scenes featurette which, Manual Cinema-style, frames the entire 37-minute livestream with two additional camera feeds simultaneously capturing the pinpoint "backstage" choreography.  There's a lot in this piece that you might easily assume was pre-recorded, but the featurette proves otherwise, showcasing TiQ's ingenuity and discipline, as well as their commitment to keeping even remote, digitally mediated performance "live" in certain senses: it seems to be something of a house rule that "pre"recording, if any, can take place only during the livestream itself, to be looped back in later — sometimes scant seconds later — during that same performance).

...and speaking of MC:  They're at it again — this time in collaboration with another Chicago-based design studio incorporating digital 2D and 3D animation — in a six-minute phantasmagoria about a woman (and a world) on a deadline:

Manual Cinema + Span:  Countdown

MC's own upcoming short film Future Feeling is apparently still aiming for a festival release sometime this year, and their behind-the-scenes teaser photos continue to intrigue me.  The miniature sets -- Nantucket sand dunes, weather-vaned beach house, dramatic spiraling cotton-wool storm clouds -- look eye-wateringly gorgeous.