Resources for Experiencing
Theatre Online
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Streaming July 22-25 – Last Easter is “a lovable drama about life, death and theatre… celebrates friendship with truths, humour and good punchlines” says London’s Guardian newspaper. Written by the acclaimed Bryony Lavery and produced by Orange Tree Theatre, this “feelgood death drama… performs its own miracle in its warmth, gusto and celebration of life and friendship.” More here.
Explore the potent work of Theatre of War Productions, boldly facing crucial human issues including grief, gun violence, violence against women and PTSD through the lens of amazingly current ancient Greek tragedy. Find excerpts of their recent rendition of Oedipus the King performed by Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright and more to address the climate crisis here. You can find upcoming livestream productions with facilitated online conversations at theaterofwar.com.
Swamp Motel blurs the borders between theatre, film and gaming, creating thrilling immersive theatre made for the internet and recommended by the New York Times. More here.. . . .
London’s acclaimed National Theatre is offering filmed classic and contemporary plays with diverse casting and bold themes, and even plays for children. Available for rent or by subscription. Audio description and captions available. More here. .
La Jolla Playhouse commissioned San Diego Poet Alyce Smith Cooper and Los Angeles-based DJ Shammy Dee to create Spittin’ Truth to Power While Light Leaping for the People – a free three-part service connecting nature, poetry and music. Find ten minutes in your day to spring forward in a leap of light with these two incredible artists. Break bread digitally with friends and family to inspire conversation and gratitude. More here.
Broadway HD streams Allegiance, a moving and uplifting story of love, war and heroism during WWII and inspired by the childhood of George Takei. “Telling the story of the Japanese American internment, which my family and I experienced first hand, has been my life’s work.” More here.
Play Reading Book Club
Stageworks Theatre invites you to join the Virtual Play Reading Book Club – the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. beginning in August.
Participants read each month’s selected title before lively discussions are held on Zoom.
You can join the Book Club here.
The event is free and donations are welcome.
Cutting Edge Audio-Video-Immersive Performance
La Jolla Playhouse’s acclaimed Without Walls Festival offers free cutting-edge online experiences – immersive storytelling through video and audio.
lajollaplayhouse.org/wow-goes-digital
Digital Theatre How To
Howlround shares detailed resources and techniques on How to Produce a Livestream. Watch Part 1 and Part 2.
More than a decade ago, Whit MacLaughlin, the Obie-winning artistic director of Philadelphia’s New Paradise Laboratories, began “slamming theatre in to the internet.” Find a transcript of his HowlRound conversation with full of practical tips and inspiration at
howlround.com/lessons-online-theatremaking-new-paradise-laboratories-whit-maclaughlin.
Scotland’s Imaginate Theatre shares a panel discussion with artists who have found creative ways to go digital while keeping an element of live performance. More here.
Zoom Tools for Theatremakers – HowlRound explores reverse-engineering Zoom to create site-specific internet performances, using digital technology to enhance traditional storytelling. More here. .
Read New Short Plays
American Blues Theatre shares short plays available as PDFs by a diverse array of cutting-edge playwrights from around the country including Caridad Svich (OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement), Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) and Larissa FastHorse (PEN/USA Literary Award for Drama) from the 2020 Ripped Festival of plots based on current events.
Frantic Create
The UK’s cutting-edge physical theatre company Frantic Assembly is sharing creative prompts and warm-ups for theatre artists to use at home.
franticassembly.co.uk/frantic-digital
Physical Comedy Training Online
Maine’s famed Celebration Barn, the center for immersive physical theatre, is offering online classes with physical comedy artists on clowning, juggling, creating viral videos and staging social justice.
Stage Shows to Watch Online
Cheers to WhatsOnStage UK, for a long list of stage shows you can watch online for free – including improv, mime, serious drama, cutting-edge comedy and all-out musicals.
Audio Performances
NYC’s amazing Ma-Yi Theatre shares REST, a free audio meditation inspired by the work of scientists around the world who measure the sounds and movement of the Earth. “From the surface of the planet to the depths of its core, and from the very human to the global, what does the Earth sound like during this pandemic? More here.
Berkeley Rep offers Place/Settings: Berkeley – short audio works by playwrights including Sarah Ruhl and Itamar Moses. “Stories surround us everywhere, whether we can see them or not. Ten writers, inspired by events in their own personal histories, take us on an aural adventure to specific locations around Berkeley. You will receive a map illustrated by a New Yorker cartoonist, lifting you out of the virtual realm and inviting you to explore the past hidden beneath the present.” Details here.
The New York Times recommends a new audio theatre podcast – “In the delightful new eight-part audio series ‘Live From Mount Olympus,’ a classic Greek myth is translated into a story for teens — and for adults who fancy a lively reimagining of the tales they learned in English class.” Tony Award-winning actor André De Shields is the narrator. Free and on-demand. More here. . .. . .
Radio Know offers audio versions of exciting new plays, created by Know Theatre in Cincinnati at knowtheatre.com.
Miami New Drama shares Master Classes
Miami New Drama is offering MASTERmind, a free online master class series created with artists in mind – in English and in Spanish.
These classes explore acting, directing and playwriting techniques, presented by an array of professionals.
Find the schedule at
colonymb.org/mastermind
Latinx Superfriends Playwriting Hour
Latinx Superfriends Playwriting Hour is a Latinx-led playwriting series featuring writers/theatremakers from across the U.S. to share writing practices, experiences, and insightful anecdotes of practice, process, and inspiration. Hosted by Brian Quijada.
Each week one playwright brings their own views on how to write dramatic texts, offering tips and prompts via their own particular social consciousness, approaches to theatrical style and form, and how to communicate to your intended audiences. The series is intended for aspiring writers, students of dramatic writing, or for anyone interested creating thoughtful, visceral, and unique blueprints for performance, whether for the stage, screen or other media.
Anti-Racist Theatre
Thank you to Howlround Theatre Commons for sharing a selection of content that calls out systemic racism in theatre and points toward anti-racist practices. Explore these thoughtful conversations at howlround.com/anti-racist-theatre.
Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London offers free behind-the-scenes videos — and paid-for recordings of many of the theatre’s Shakespeare adaptations – including Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry in Twelfth Night, Jonathan Pryce as the Merchant of Venice, Emma Rice’s naughty telling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Adetomiwa Edun and Ellie Kendrick in the 2009 production of Romeo and Juliet and Lucy Bailey’s bloodthirsty Titus Andronicus.
Impossible Stage Directions Brought to Life
Washington DC’s imaginative Rorschach Theatre “has always had a love affair with what we call ‘impossible stage directions.’ We are drawn to moments in which playwrights invite us to create theatre magic and to embody something abstract in a tangible way. Find skillful stage designers interpreting actual stage directions through photography, video and audio here.
The amazing Young Jean Lee is offering an online stream of her life-affirming concert play We’re Gonna Die at youngjeanlee.org/work/were-gonna-die. Embrace the title, as the playwright and performer does — with a heartfelt and defiant piece of storytelling-with-a-groovy-band that recognizes that no one’s immune from pain. And while affirming that, Young Jean Lee — and the band — begin to dance. . .
Young Jean Lee is also offering a free online playwriting class, sharing the techniques she uses to start a new play. Find it here.
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On the Boards offers a diverse range of experimental theatre and dance online — and master classes. On the Boards makes access to artists like Austin’s famed Rude Mechs up close and affordable.
