BEST OF ST. LOUIS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Oktoberfest cruise), and best of all, they all include access to the breezy rooftop where you can get away from breathing the same air as your fellow passengers. JAIME LEES
BEST LIVESTREAM (THEATER)
The St. Louis Black Repertory Company 6662 Olive Boulevard, University City; 314-534-3810
BEST LIVESTREAM (MUSIC)
Fresh Produce Beat Battle
Music livestreams can fall kind of flat. The problem lies mostly in the lack of atmosphere that you get compared to when you attend a live show in person — the simple fact is, watching a concert on a screen is never going to compare to standing shoulder-toshoulder in a sweaty crowd belting out the lyrics to your favorite song with a small army of strangers. But St. Louis’ Fresh Produce Beat Battle has an ace in the hole: an element of competition. By pitting producers from across the nation against one another in a bracket-style tournament, with cash prizes and bragging rights on the line, the long-running event keeps things shockingly lively even as it’s gone
When life keeps you home, go twice as hard: Fresh Produce works from home. | LINCOLN JAMES digital. And the event brings topnotch production values too, utilizing Zoom and OBS Studio to keep the competitors on screen while their work still sounds stellar. Perhaps best of all, the competition has moved from being a monthly affair to a biweekly one, offering up twice the escape from
the drudgery that is life in 2020. Frankly, with live music on life support, many sports canceled outright and the iterations of each that remain limping along at best, finding something worth rooting for is a win unto itself. Let us give thanks for the bounty that is Fresh Produce. DANIEL HILL
riverfronttimes.com
Closed theaters have been one of the ongoing tragedies of the pandemic. We tend to think of it only in terms of lost shows, glossing over all the people out of work and the ripple effect on supporting businesses. As they all try to hang on, they’ve had to scramble to find new ways to connect. That’s meant livestreams, replays of recorded shows and video interviews for theater companies across the nation. The lack ep has taken a particularly proactive approach, not only to the shutdowns but societal problems. In early October, the company streamed live performances of Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It. The performances weren’t in empty theaters, but parking lots as part of voter drives in partnership with St. Louis activist groups. Thomasina larke’s powerful performance as the famed civil rights
OCTOBER 14-20, 2020
RIVERFRONT TIMES
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