Jan 26

Jan. 22 Weekend Roundup: “The Race” & “Shrike”

The Race presented by the Wilbury Theatre Group
By Mark Binder
Directed by Brien Lang
Original music by Nikita Zabinski
Featuring Jim O’Brien, Rodney Eric López, and Jennifer Mischley
January 15 -31, 2021
Performances via Zoom
Tickets

Shrike 
Written by Erin Lerch
Directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden
Sunday, January 24 and Sunday, February 7 at 2PM
Performances via Zoom
Tickets

Review by Kitty Drexel

ZOOM — Over the weekend, we took in two New England productions. The Wilbury Theatre Group presents an interactive mindbender: The Race runs now through January 31. Fresh Ink Theatre presents readings for feedback of Shrike. Its next performance is on Sunday, February 7 at 2PM.  

Geek staff writer Gillian Daniels previously wrote about The Race HERE. Her response is accurate, thoughtful. There is not much more to add since Daniels’ review captures the experience so well. Folx that enjoyed Arlekin Players Theatre’s State vs. Natasha Banina will enjoy The Race. Continue reading

Jun 15

Streamed Content to Prevent COVID-19 Brain Drain: BIPOC Lives Continue to Matter

Dear Readers,

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)

BIPOC Lives Matter
Trans Lives Matter
LGBTQIA+ Lives Matter
Immigrant Lives Matter

You are loved; you are necessary; your art matters to us.

Resist. Resist. Resist.
All my love,
Kitty
Queen of the New England Theatre Geeks

Let us know if we missed something! Email us at blognetheatregeek@gmail.com or find us on our social media pages.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/netheatregeek
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewEnglandTheatreGeek/


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 Boston and Black 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 & Believers Amid 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.

To Sleep! from K Allen Holman on Vimeo.

Newton Theatre CompanyAll 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

Public Displays of Motion: Stones to Rainbows Duet Dialogues — Monthly Cocktail Hour Chat tomorrow June 16 from 6:30-8pm. With Lady BOS Productions, KAIROS Dance Theater, and Public Displays of Motion. 
www.publicdisplaysofmotion.com
www.kairosdancetheater.org
www.ladybosproductions.com

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).

Elsewhere, on the Internet:
Sideshow Theatre: Tilikum returns for one night only.
Friday, June 19, 7pm CDT
Streaming everywhere

Jun 01

Streamed Content to Prevent COVID-19 Brain Drain: June is Bursting… Fuck the Police

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter – https://blacklivesmatter.com
Mass ACLU – https://www.aclum.org/en
Showing Up for Racial Justice – http://www.surjboston.org/
Mass Bail Fund –  https://www.massbailfund.org/
Violence in Boston https://www.violenceinboston.org/
M4BL – https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/
Pen Americahttps://pen.org/

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

/////

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…

  1. Perform 40 hours in honor of our performers and stages at 40 Prospect Street;
  2. Collect 620+ donations in honor of our students and teachers at 620 Massachusetts Avenue; and
  3. 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

Newton Theatre Company — Join us for their next Zoom Radio Hour! Rebecca, based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier.
Thursday, June 4th at 8 PM
Log on at 7:45 PM for Piano Entertainment by local musician Neil Miller
Register to view the production here– it’s free!

Let us know if we missed something! Email us at blognetheatregeek@gmail.com or find us on our social media pages.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/netheatregeek
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewEnglandTheatreGeek/

Jan 27

Climate Terrors: “The Last Catastrophist”

Evelyn Holley as Marina and Shanelle Chloe Villegas as Lucia (L to R). Photo by Paul Fox.

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre Company
By David Valdes
Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz
Dramaturgy by Sarah Schnebly
Fight choreography by Marge Dunn

January 24 – February 8, 2020
Plaza Black Box Theatre
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
Fresh Ink on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Boston, MA — The opening of The Last Catastrophist coincides with a news update saying that the current president will repeal Obama era environmental protections for streams, wetlands, and groundwater. Repealing these measures is a step backwards from preventing the devastating effects of climate change on US lands. What small matter is clean, public drinking water so long as his precious golf courses are green? One can’t possibly spend one of every five working days golfing on his private business estates without golf courses greener than envy.

Water is life. Continue reading

May 15

The Undiscovered Country: Heritage Hill Naturals

The cast. Photo via Fresh Ink Facebook page

Presented by Fresh Ink
Written by Francisca Da Silveira
Directed by Phaedra Michelle Scott

May 11 – 26, 2018
Deane Hall, The Standford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
Fresh Ink on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu

(Boston, MA) Fresh Ink Theatre Presents: Heritage Hill Naturals is nominally an examination of the millennial generation’s anxiety, paralysis, and distractions from their unique existential malaise. These distractions come in the form of Buzzfeed memes, selfie stick subculture, and month-long agro-tourism stints in rural America. Our protagonist, Lucy, seeks self-enlightenment, or at least solace from her anxiety and depression at Heritage Hill Naturals, one such farm in rural Georgia. Here, she finds anything but, amongst a cast of quirky characters, and strange circumstances beyond her scope of experience or her best efforts at benevolence. Continue reading

May 10

“La Llorona”: Myth, Music, and Motherhood

Photo by Paul Fox

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre
By Cecelia Raker
Directed by Stephanie LeBolt
Music Composition by Geraldine Barney

May 5-20, 2017
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Fresh Ink Theatre on Facebook and Twitter

Review by Travis Manni

(Boston, MA) Mythologies can become difficult to trace and define as stories change from generation to generation. In a Fresh Ink Theatre premier production, playwright Cecelia Raker attempts to give life to the myth of a mourning mother in the multi-genre, multicultural play La Llorona. Continue reading

Feb 17

Elvis Doesn’t Waltz: DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP

Photo by Emma Young; a tense moment for Commodore Perry and family.

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre Company
Written by Laura Neill
Directed by Joshua Glenn-Kayden
Dramatugy by Jessica Foster

February 10-25, 2017
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02116
Fresh Ink on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) Fresh Ink Theatre Company serves its community by developing the works of currently living, local-ish playwrights. They do awesome work. Don’t Give Up the Ship is the first show in their 2016/2017 season. Please vote for the arts with your attendance.    Continue reading