Out On the (Virtual) Town

By Doug Rule

AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER’S STREAMING OFFERINGS

The Grapes of Wrath

Through a special agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the professional theater troupe devoted to Shakespeare is one of the few able to stream full, filmed recordings of past productions. The current offerings are of two stagings from the past season of the center’s National Tour company, including a version of the Bard’s classic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A timelier, bolder, and more unexpected offering is Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. José Zayas directs a spare interpretation of the John Steinbeck Depression-era classic that relies on the 11-member ensemble for versatile storytelling enhanced with music, capped by “We Go On,” an original anthem from company member Madeline Calais that helps close out the show.

Both productions are available through at least May 31 on the company’s streaming service BlkFrsTV, praised by the Wall Street Journal for its “webcasts [that] effortlessly convey the joyous experience of watching Shakespeare in Blackfriars Playhouse” — the center’s main, in-the-round theater space modeled after the original Globe Theatre and located in the historic Shenandoah Valley town of Staunton, Va. Tickets start at $10 per show in a “pay the price that works for you” scale that goes up to $100.

Visit www.americanshakespearecenter.com.

CINEMA ARTS THEATRE’S VIRTUAL CINEMA

Up From the Streets

Virginia’s Cinema Arts Theatre is among several theaters showing Up From The Streets. However, a portion of the ticket sales from the venue will be donated to the music relief fund overseen by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation and supporting the city’s musicians and music industry workers.

The arthouse movieplex in Fairfax also begins streams this Friday of The Cordillera of Dreams, the third in a Chilean film trilogy from Patricio Guzmán exploring his native country’s history as it relates to topography, here focused on the Andes mountain range and its omnipresent yet largely unexamined role in the lives of his compatriots.

Other titles available through Cinema Arts include And Then We Danced, Levan Akin’s well-crafted tale of two male company members in the National Georgian Dance Ensemble who become competitors, then partners, then lovers, with Levan Gelbakhiani starring as the quiet yet intense Merab; Sorry We Missed You, Ken Loach’s wrenching, intimate family drama from last year focused on the British working class and exposing the dark side of the “gig economy”; The Times of Bill Cunningham, Mark Bozek’s 2018 documentary about the iconic, gay New York Times street photographer and fashion historian, told in his own words, with narration by Sarah Jessica Parker; Beyond the Visible-Hilma Af Klint, Halina Dyrschka’s course-correcting documentary about an abstract artist way ahead of her time who had been all-but-forgotten to art history due to patriarchal and capitalistic notions of artistic progress and value; and Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole, which focuses on the intense bond that forms between two women, both anti-aircraft gunners during World War II, who struggle to readjust to a haunted world and life in Leningrad after the war. In Russian with English subtitles.

Visit www.cinemaartstheatre.com.

KENNEDY CENTER DIGITAL STAGE

Ben Folds

It’s not everyday you can see Beyoncé perform Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” or serenade Barbra Streisand with “The Way We Were,” or catch Steve Carrell saluting his comedic forebear Steve Martin.

Those are just three standout performances from past Kennedy Center Honors productions now available for streaming online while the physical complex remains closed to new performances. Bruno Mars’ rendition of “Message In A Bottle” for Sting, the former Police frontman performing “The Rising” in tribute to Bruce Springsteen, and Audrey Hepburn raising a toast to Cary Grant are three other past Honors highlights that factor into the Kennedy Center’s Digital Stage, where you can also see acceptance speeches from recipients of the institution’s annual Mark Twain Prize for comedy, ranging from Ellen DeGeneres to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bob Newhart to Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey to David Letterman.

But the online offerings go well beyond those many multi-artist confabs with other excerpts from Kennedy Center presentations of artists ranging from Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani to Ben Folds with the National Symphony Orchestra to those who have been featured on the venue’s all-genre Millennium Stage.

There are also a handful of Digital Stage Original featurettes focused on: Dale Chihuly and the chandelier the artist created for the renovated Terrace Theater in 2017, Matt Karas and his behind-the-scenes photographs featuring dancers from the New York City and Mariinsky ballets and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the eclectic, showstopping costumes from Cuban designer Celia Ledón.

Visit www.kennedy-center.org/digitalstage.

MASON ARTS AT HOME VIRTUAL EVENTS

Swing 2020

George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts has organized a series of online events in place of live events and to finish out the school year. The #MasonArtsatHome series includes “Music in the Time of Quarantine: School of Music Finale Concert,” with performances by the Mason choirs, Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble, Faculty Brass Ensemble, and the Tuba & Euphonium Ensemble, among others, plus an introduction by the school’s director Dr. Linda Monson, on Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m.; and “Behind the Scenes with the Creative Team of Swing 2020,” a discussion about the innovative work of swing dance co-commissioned by the GMU Center for the Arts and New York’s Joyce Theater, led by Joyce’s Ross LeClair and featuring choreographers Caleb Teicher, Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, and Nathan Bugh and music director Eyal Vilner, on Monday, May 18, at 7 p.m. All virtual events take place on the center’s Facebook page.

Visit cfa.gmu.edu for more information.

Audra McDonald

A NIGHT OF COVENANT HOUSE STARS

Jon Bon Jovi, Dolly Parton, and Meryl Streep are the headliners of a free livestream concert on Monday, May 18, that will raise money for homeless and at-risk youth served by Covenant House.

Broadway star Audra McDonald and 60 Minutes anchor John Dickerson will co-host the show. It will also feature appearances by Diane Keaton, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Brosnahan, Robin Thicke, Dionne Warwick, and Jeff Calhoun — not to mention various youth who will bravely share their stories.

Proceeds from the concert will help Covenant House provide shelter and care for the increasing numbers of children in need due to COVID-19. The livestream starts at 8 p.m. and will stream on Broadway On Demand, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, iHeartRadio Broadway, Amazon Prime Video, and Stars in the House. Free, but RSVP requested.

Visit www.covenanthouse.org/nightofstars-rsvp.