NEWTON, MA ⸺ Almost three decades after its premiere, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 still holds truth to issues of race and class in America. Despite years after the 1992 LA riots, we are stuck in a vacuum where we have yet to include and acknowledge the context, text, and subtext of the ways in which racism and institutional systems prevail and create distance in making progress in the United States. Anna Deavere Smith’s use of verbatim theatre fights against this and creates conversation; giving a platform for those heavily affected.
Sitting outside in dark, grey weather, the atmosphere began light-hearted. Community members greeted and welcomed each other before the rain began to drizzle. Enter, Regan Sims: tall, poised, and quiet.Continue reading →
“Pass Over” Written by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu Directed in Boston by Monica White Ndounou, January 3 – February 2, 2020 Directed in New York by Danya Taymor August Wilson Theatre 245 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019 Tickets on sale now
Article by Kitty Drexel
NEW YORK, NY and BOSTON, Mass.– Broadway stopped all activity in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic closed indoor entertainment venues across the nation.
Thirty-one plays and musicals were running before the shutdown, including eight new shows in previews. An additional eight productions were in rehearsals and preparing to open in the spring the Broadway League said. COVID-19 closed them all.
Maiesha McQueen in Until the Flood. Photo: Kathy Wittman
Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
By Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Timothy Douglas
Original music by Lindsay Jones
Film by Kathy Wittman
Performed with excellence by Maiesha McQueen
April 17 to May 2, 2021
Via video-on-demand only TICKETS
MRT on Facebook
MRT’s Content Alert: Based on real events, Until the Flood includes references to racism, bigotry, prejudice, and off-stage violence. The play contains strong adult content/language, including racial slurs. Recommended for ages 16 and older.
Critique by Kitty Drexel
STREAMING — The US police keep killing Black people. On Wednesday, April 28 a Collin County, Texas medical examiner ruled Marvin Scott III’s death a homicide. That was last night. Ma’Khia Bryant was killed by police on April 22. Derek Chauvin was convicted of killing George Floyd on April 20. Nearly a year after the murder took place. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Aleah Jenkins, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown: I could go on and on. It’s no wonder that human rights lawyers from around the world have called for an investigation of the internationalcriminal court into the systematic murder of Black people in the US.
Until the Flood is a one-woman show about the stories we tell with our lives. On August 9, 2014 Darren Wilson, a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. In response to the murder, Dael Orlandersmith interviewed Black and white people, compiled their stories and created this play. We are witness to a spectrum of views. Each monologue takes the viewer closer to Michael Brown and the events that formed the Black Lives Movement.Continue reading →
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA 10th Anniversary Ribbon Cutting: (L-R) BCA Chairman Philip W. Lovejoy, Huntington Trustees Gerald and Sherryl Cohen, Calderwood Charitable Foundation Trustee John Cornish, former Huntington chairman J. David Wimberly, (behind) Paul Grogan of The Boston Foundation, BCA Executive Director Veronique Le Melle, Huntington Chairman Carol G. Deane, (behind) former BRA member Harry Collings, former Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Bank of America Massachusetts State President Robert Gallery, Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois, (behind) former Huntington president William P. McQuillan, Huntington President Mitchell J. Roberts, Nancy Roberts, Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso, photo: Paul Marotta
Article by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON — The July 9 press release said, “Huntington Theatre Company announces the election of 4 new board members and the promotion of two Huntington Advisors to Trustee level. The election took place during the Huntington’s year-end meeting of the Board of Trustees and Advisors on June 8, 2020.”
The headliner of the press release, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award winner, director of Huntington productions, and historically relevant badass Billy Porter is a new trustee of the Huntington. Porter and global businessman Professor George Yip are the only two people of color added to the Huntington’s snowflake white board leadership. Three of the six promotions are white women. The other is, of course, a rich, cis, white male.
While we congratulate all of the new board and trustee members, we can’t help but notice the Huntington’s hypocrisy. The theatre penned and posted a Black Lives Matter solidarity statement on its website. The election of four white people flies in the face of that solidarity statement. Continue reading →
The New England Theatre Geek believes that BIPOC Lives will continue to matter when it’s no longer popular to mass media or convenient to white people.
As the weeks go by, we will share resources as we are made aware of them to them. StageSource has a brilliant anti-racism list. Check it out HERE.
Resources for Anti-Racist Action May-June 2020 – “This list was sourced from countless activists and information sharers. We thank you. It was created to support action and organizing for white-identified folks within the artEquity alumni network, so some resources speak specifically to white folks. However, EVERYONE is welcomed to utilize and share anything that is useful to your actions and organizing.” (quoted from the document)
Front Porch Collective Black Composer Minature Challenge presented by Castle of our Skins Friday June 19 @ 12:00 PM | via Instagram Live Composer Shannon Shea will be presenting the world premiere of “Hannah Elias II” performed by Castle of our Skins Executive & Artistic Director and violaist Ashleigh Gordon on the COOS Facebook and Instagram at noon. Part of their weekly 30-second Black Composer Miniature Challenge, be sure to tune in on time…or you might miss it!
Juneteenth: A Community Celebration presented by BAMS Fest & Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Friday June 19 @ 4:00 – 7:00 PM | via Facebook Live & YouTube Join BAMS Fest for the MFA’s annual (virtual) Juneteenth celebration to honor the contributions of Black creatives, scholars, and artists to the City of Boston. We have curated two amazing artists, Debo Ray and DJ Where’s Nasty to to celebrate all things Black and joyful.
Fresh Ink Theatre — Presents a digital reading of MAIDEN VOYAGE. Written by Cayenne Douglass. Directed by Liz Fenstermaker Available online, June 8 – 14, 2020. REGISTER to view the performance In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, we will be donating 50% of the proceeds from the reading through June 14th to two organizations:Violence in BostonandBlack and Pink. Thank you for joining us in supporting these organizations, and for championing new work by local writers during this time of social distancing!
Liars & Believers — Macbeth Trailer by Liars & BelieversAmid isolation, dislocation, and digital absorbtion… desire and ethic, madness and reason tear each other apart. This is Shakespeare’s classic tragedy – TODAY. Using social distance and the tools at hand, we’ve reimagined theatre in Pandemia! We’ve broken this 5-act tragedy into short weekly episodes.
Luminarium Dance — This week’s TEN4TEN performance takes viewers back to Luminarium’s 2014 feature production The Sleeprunner, which transformed the Multicultural Arts Center space into a dynamic dream world for a two-week sold-out run. Sensical to quirky, humorous to dark, come engage in a full night’s journey told through dance, with gorgeous costumes designed by Sueann Leung.
Newton Theatre Company — All About Eve, written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Thursday, June 25th at 8 PM. $10.00 Directed by Melissa Bernstein Log on at 7:45 PM for piano entertainment by local musician Neil Miller Register for the Performance
Puppet Showplace Theater — Puppet Showplace Theater is excited to announce a new grant and virtual summer residency program for Black puppeteers and artists working in the field of puppetry. Inquiries from interested applicants across the U.S. are welcome. The deadline to apply is June 27th. APPLY 5 selected artists will receive $1,000 grants to support the research and development of original puppetry projects during summer 2020. Puppet Showplace Theater will facilitate community-building among members of the grantee cohort and will create opportunities for artists to support and learn from each other while sharing works in progress. The residency will conclude with an invited virtual public sharing of the work or work-in-progress.
SpeakEasy Stage Company and the Front Porch Arts Collective — They invite you to join SpeakEasy for a panel called “2020: Black and Male in America – A Conversation Continued,” on Tuesday, June 16 at 5:00pm. The panel will be available to watch live on SpeakEasy’s Facebook page. The panel will include:
Kadahj Bennett (Winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor for his Performance as Moses in Pass Over)
Thaddeus Miles (Director of Community Services, MassHousing)
Maurice Emmanuel Parent (Executive Director, The Front Porch Arts Collective)
Dr. Emmett G. Price III (Professor of Worship, Church & Culture, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary)
Moderated by Gary Bailey (Assistant Dean of Community Engagement and Social Justice, Simmons College).
The New England Theatre Geek asserts that Black Lives Matter, BIPOC Lives Matter, Immigrant Lives Matter.
These lives matter now that it’s popular and convenient for white communities to pledge that they matter. These lives will continue to matter to us when it’s inconvenient and the Black Lives Matter movement is no longer popular in mainstream journalism. The New England Theatre Geek pledges to widen its activism and remain vigilant.
Racism isn’t something white people with comfortable lifestyles can solve in a few months during quarantine when we’re all at home anyway with a couple of Twitter posts and a simple website banner (that a Black person made anyway). Racism is systemic; it is aggressive; it is subverted. Deconstructing systemic racism requires equally aggressive, daily practice, and vigilance. We pledge ourselves to this daily practice.
It’s a list. It’s a start that should lead to one’s own personal research.
Most news resources – It is very popular right now for media sites to offer resources. If you find a reliable site that you trust, bookmark it, sign up for its newsletter. Read that newsletter. It’s only by making anti-racist changes a conscious, personal, daily practice that can we ever hope to eradicate racism one day.
Racism is an inherent system that affects everyone existing in society. Perpetuating racism isn’t conscious or explicit; it isn’t rational. You can’t choose to live outside of racism. You can be a “good/nice person” and be racist. Racism is a social reality for all.
White people, you will mess up. You will say and do racist things accidentally. Don’t get defensive. Messing up doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a person. Thank the person of color who corrects you (if you’re lucky enough to have a relationship with someone who will) and keep educating yourself.
Don’t ask Black people to explain race/racism to you. That’s not their job. Not even if they’re your friends/colleagues. Attend a training or workshop. Contact your HR. Read a book. Google it. Read the room.
You can have conversations about race/racism with your Black friends if your relationship is conducive to that dialogue. Ask for consent first. If you don’t know why it’s important to ask for consent, you are not ready to have this conversation with your Black friend/s.
Do have conversations with other white people about whiteness/race. Our skin has a color; it affects the world around us. We need the conversational practice.
Don’t try to be the “cool white person.” BIPOC will not see you that way.
White people love to think that racism is something that only exists in history, that it isn’t something we do now. Racism evolves as people do.
Race might not be real but racism is. It will take your entire life to deconstruct your inherent beliefs about white supremacy. Keep going.
New Focus Recordings presents John Aylward’s Angelus
Conducted by Jean-Philippe Wurtz
Release Date: April 24, 2020
Genres: Classical, Contemporary Chamber Music
Text translations and adaptations by John Aylward.
Performed by Ecce Ensemble: Nina Guo, voice; Emi Ferguson, flutes; Hassan Anderson, oboe; Barret Ham, clarinets; Pala Garcia, violin; John Popham, cello; Sam Budish, percussion
Disclaimer: Classical music is #whiteculture. While reading this critique please consider the impact white culture has on Black and Brown bodies. Right now is an excellent time for we white artists to figure out how to even the playing field. Black lives still matter during times of peace.
Critique by Kitty Drexel
Digital Recording/Streaming — On the cover of Ecce Ensemble’s recording of Angelus is a reprinting of Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus. A glorified stick figure in beige and mulled yellow, this humanoid seraph bares conical, gapped teeth at observers that look ready to snap. Its wings are elongated fingers with nail beds. Its feet are stunted three-pronged talons. Klee’s angel is no sentimental rendering of a chubby baby in sheets. It is more Biblical destroyer than Anne Geddes. This image prepares the listener for the ethereal violence of Aylward’s work. Continue reading →
Black Lives Matter to the New England Theatre Geeks. They matter to us through violent protests and during times of relative peace.
We Geeks are unapologetically supportive of the BLM Movement’s need to resist in the ways they deem best. Even the “problematic’ ways. We will continue to show up and shut up for the movement.
We ask all readers to remember that Black Lives will still Matter after the riots are cleared and your local government begins repairing the damage its police have wrought in its communities. Fuck the police.
No one is saying that white lives don’t matter. But, there sure are a lot of white people saying that Black Lives don’t Matter with their words, actions and hashtags. Police are the ones showing up with guns, tasers and pepper spray to nonviolent protests and inciting violence.(I’m not linking to that filth. Find it your damn self.)
June is Pride Month. As we step into this month of celebration, never forget that Black transwoman Marsha P. Johnson and Latina drag queen Sylvia Rivera started the Stonewall Riots. Pride is for everyone, not just the rich, white corporations that can sell it today and hypocritically pander to homophobic interest groups the next.
The New England Theatre Geek platform is available to the resistance to spread messages of justice and equity. Our resistance will stop when the bigotry stops.
Black Lives Matter
Trans Lives Matter
Native Lives Matter
Brown Lives Matter
LGBTQIA+ Lives Matter
Immigrant Lives Matter
Fuck the Police
Resist. Resist. Resist.
All my love,
Kitty
Queen of the New England Theatre Geeks
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Fresh Ink Theatre — All aboard for a digital staged reading of MAIDEN VOYAGE by Cayenne Douglass, streaming June 8-14! http://freshinktheatre.org/maiden-voyage
For a limited time only, we are bringing a digital staged reading of Maiden Voyage by Cayenne Douglass from the depths of the ocean straight to your computer screens! Don’t miss this maritime new play following the exploits and adventures of the first all-female patrol aboard a U.S. submarine.
Emmanuel Music — During this time of high anxiety and uncertainty, we hope that you will find solace, meaning, and beauty through the music of J.S. Bach. Over the coming weeks and months, our staff looks forward to engaging you further through complementary online resources, including video interviews, written reflections, program notes, and translations. We hope that we will see you as soon as restrictions are lifted and we can resume presenting live programs.
History At Play — In this presentation of Victorian Gossip Girl: Annie Adams Fields, History At PlayTM, LLC Founder and Artistic Director Judith Kalaora is Annie Fields, the Boston literary scout, author, and philanthropist. Mrs. Fields had an incredible influence on literary decisions at her husband’s Tremont Street publishing house – Ticknor and Fields (the forerunner to Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company) – and had a great ear for gossip! A LIVE LIVE-STREAMED PERFORMANCE DIRECT TO YOUR HOME!
FRIDAY, JUNE 5 – 7:30 PM ET (GMT-5)
VIA PAY-PER-HAP FACEBOOK VIP WATCH GROUP
$5-$25 (Pay-What-You-Can) or $100 for a 2020 Season Pass
Schedule: June 5: Victorian Gossip Girl: Annie Adams Fields/ June 12: Tinseltown Inventor: The Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Hedy Lamarr/ June 19: CHALLENGER: Soaring with Christa McAuliffe/ June 26: Chit Chat with Dolley Madison / July 3: [No program] July 10:World War Women: The Unsung Heroines of WWII / July 17:Rendezvous with Rachel Revere with Special Guest!/ July 24: Educational Lecture: Building a Business out of History/ July 31: A Revolution of Her Own! Deborah Sampson
Improv Boston — Starting at 8pm on June 5th, ImprovBoston will be hosting The ImprovBoston Virtual Marathon. 40 hours of live art and comedy to support the arts and save a theater. The event will be a telethon-style fundraising broadcast, live-streamed for free in its entirety at ImprovBoston.com/virtualmarathon. The event will conclude at 12pm on June 7th. DONATE HERE.
Goals for the event…
Perform 40 hours in honor of our performers and stages at 40 Prospect Street;
Collect 620+ donations in honor of our students and teachers at 620 Massachusetts Avenue; and
Raise $114,000 in honor of our staff at 114 Bishop Allen Drive.
Liars & Believers — Introducing the next Pandemic Play, Entitled.
This dark little morsel is from our friend Peter Snoad (who also wrote The Greening of Bridget Kelley).
Entitled, Written by Peter Snoad. Directed by Lindsay Eagle.
Dobbin – Meredith Saran
Mr. Gross – Bob Mussett
with Sarah Gazdowicz as Linda
Goals for the event…
