Among the many lessons that living through the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus, two of the most immediately applicable are the value of community and the value of time. So we thought we’d share some of the ways that we’ve been spending our time and feeling some sense of connection to theatre and theatre friends.
Six Minutes of Pure Joy
The music video Sweet Home Chicago, as described by Mark Larson (co-producer of the video and author of the book Ensemble), “captures Chicago’s ensemble ethos and puts it to work raising spirits and inspiring donations to the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund.” (A full list of the artists and production team is included on the video’s YouTube page.)
Reckoning with a Racist Past and Present
We want to highlight a searingly honest, heart-rending, and life-changing event we experienced in real time from the Stratford Festival on 6/6/20, which is viewable on YouTube. The title of the broadcast is “Black Like Me, past, present and future: Behind the Stratford Curtain.” The Stratford Festival included the following description in its announcement of the event: “Recent racialized events in Canada and the U.S. have caused the Stratford Festival to take stock of its complicity in upholding anti-Black racism and, in an unprecedented move, the Festival has offered its Black company members, staff and crew free rein on its social media and a live YouTube broadcast this Saturday. A panel of Black artists and artisans will discuss how the last few weeks have affected them; the experience of living in conservative and 95% white Perth County; and the complexities and challenges they have faced while working at the Festival. Stratford Festival patrons are invited for a singular look at what it’s like to be Black in the world, and in this town and company.”
Interviews
- Off Prompt: Emma Couling interviewing Sydney Charles
- Booth One: Episode 105 Breon Arzell
- Booth One: Episode 96 Lili-Anne Brown and Robert Cornelius
- Booth One: Episode 87 Francis Guinan
- Booth One: Episode 59 Antoinette Nwandu & Danya Taymor
- Goodman Theatre’s Live@Five: Director Lili-Anne Brown and playwright Jocelyn Bioh, interviewed by Willa Taylor, talk about School Girls, Or, the African Mean Girls Play
- Goodman Theatre’s Live@Five: Nathan Lane, interviewed by Robert Falls, talks about The Iceman Cometh and many other things
- What’s Up? with Matthew Sitz: Short, fun, stay-at-home interviews with artists associated with Court Theatre (e.g., Ron OJ Parson, Chaon Cross, Regina Victor, Kate Collins, Kelvin Roston, Jr., Ariel Williams)
The Music of Theatre
- The Beautiful City Project monthly concerts; the first Stay-Home version was on 3/19/20, raising money for Season of Concern
- Porchlight’s Stephen Sondheim’s 90th Birthday Celebration: clips from previous Porchlight Sondheim productions
- More Sondheim: Sophie Grimm’s 3/26/20 Mini Sondheim Concert (starting 4:55 into the video), which is part of the Auditorium Theatre’s “At Home with the Auditorium” series
- Even more Sondheim: Joan Curto, Sophie Grimm, and friends in their 11/3/19 Carpool Cabaret with the Sondheim Singers (inspired by James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, of course)
- And the ultimate: Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration: no wasted motion, just dozens of Sondheim collaborators singing their hearts out from a living room, backyard, or wherever they happen to be sheltering in place; the best tribute show we’ve ever seen!
National Theatre Live Behind the Scenes
In addition to National Theatre Live’s free productions (each available for one week, at National Theatre at Home), they also have an extensive library of behind-the-scenes videos about many of their classics, including:
- From Stage to Screen | Making National Theatre Live
- Angels in America | Flying the Angel
- Angels in America | Behind the scenes of a two-play day
- Follies | Mirror, Mirror: Choreographing a showstopper
- Follies | Vicki Mortimer on Costume
Working in the Theatre
The American Theatre Wing has a documentary series covering various aspects of the inner workings of theatre. We didn’t made it through all of the 200+ videos (!), but here are a few we’ve sampled and enjoyed:
- Working in the Theatre: Costumes (1/28/15)
- Working in the Theatre: Odd Jobs (2/7/18)
- Working in the Theatre: Odd Jobs 2 (3/13/19)
