Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be limited theatre news for the foreseeable future. I will continue to search for anything meaningful and/or fun to report. Stay safe and healthy.
In addition, with national protests in full swing, and many events being postponed or cancelled, I don’t know when more theatre news will be available, so newsletters may be even shorter for awhile…
Today’s Highlights:
* The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater‘s Ailey Spirit Benefit Gala, featuring Leslie Odom Jr. Cynthia Erivo, Angela Bassett, Timothy Shriver, Lorraine Toussaint, and Bryan Stevenson, opens at 7:30 PM online here (and continues for one week).
* Adrift virtual benefit reading, by Richard Alleman, directed by Anthony Newfield, featuring Alison Fraser, Glauco Araujo, Karen Archer, and Anthony Newfield, livestreamed at 7 PM ET. 
here.
* The UK’s National Theatre at Home‘s The Madness of George III FREE re-broadcast, by Alan Bennett, directed by Adam Penford, featuring Mark Gatiss, Adrian Scarborough, Debra Gillett, Nadia Albina, Nicholas Bishop, Amanda Hadingue, Jack Holden, David Hounslow, Stephanie Jacob, Louise Jameson, Andrew Joshi, Adam Karim, Harry Kershaw, Billy Postlethwaite, Sara Powell, Wilf Scolding, and Jessica Temple, at 2 PM ET (and available through June 18).
* New York Times’ “Offstage: Opening Night,” featuring songs and conversations from the 2020 postponed season, livestreamed for FREE at 7 PM ET here.
* Musical Theatre Audition MasterClass, with instructors Debbie Gravitte & Michael Orland, special guests Santino Fontana, Merrie Sugerman, and Laura Osnes, and singers Leia Cockerell, Jayda Freeman, Victoria Edwards, Kayenta Cruz, and Ali Dougherty, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET on Zoom (ID: 663 981-0058, no password required).
**********************
The Shubert Foundation has awarded a total of $32 million in 2020 grants to a record 560 performing arts organizations in the United States. Ranging from $10,000 to $325,000, the funds benefit a broad spectrum of regional and non-profit Off-Broadway and Broadway companies.
A collective $6.5 million went to organizations in New York state, including large grants (between $325,000 and $200,000) to NYC-based institutions like Atlantic Theater Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre, Signature Theatre, and The Public.
Among the 93 New York theatres to also receive funding are Ars Nova, Bedlam, Classic Stage Company, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio, La Mama, INTAR, Irish Repertory, Ma-Yi, MCC, National Black Theatre, New Dramatists, Pan Asian Rep., Primary Stages, Rattlestick Playwrights, Soho Rep., St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Bushwick Starr, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Flea, The Lark, The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene, The Playwrights Realm, Theatre For A New Audience, and Vineyard Theatre.
Regional theatres were also among the recipients of the larger grants ($200,000 and upwards), including McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Arena Stage in Washington D.C.; Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, and Yale Rep. in Connecticut; The Guthrie and Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company in Minnesota; Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf; the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky; Alliance Theatre in Atlanta; and the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Forty-eight California non-profits received grants totaling $2,730,000, including Berkeley Rep., Center Theatre Group, South Coast Rep., La Jolla Playhouse, and The Old Globe.
Among the recognizable theatres receiving mid-size grants were Baltimore’s Center Stage, Cleveland Play House, D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth, Dallas Theatre Center, Kansas City Rep., and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
**********************
Video: “Plays in the House” presents Free Speech: Performing Artists and the Power of the Spoken Word, with James Alexander, Masi Asare, Valerie David, Jennifer Nelson, Nandita Shenoy, and Bil Wright. (1:17:50)
**********************
Video: “Stars in the House,” with special guest Betty Buckley. (1:04:34)
**********************
PA’s Bucks County Playhouse presents its next Virtual Variety Show on Sun. June 14 at 7 PM ET.
Marilu Henner, John Tartaglia, and Ben Fankhauser.
**********************
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis has postponed the beginning of its 2020-21 season until at least Dec. 2020 in order to ensure the safety of its patrons, guest artists, staff and volunteers.
The theatre’s plan is to re-open in December with A Christmas Carol, and then run an extended Winter/Spring season in 2021.
Stay tuned for updates.
**********************
Moliere in the Park presents Tartuffe on Sat. June 27 at 2 PM ET & 7 PM ET, directed by Lucie Tiberghien. The event is appx. 90 minutes. The play will also be available through July 1 (2 PM ET performance). A Q&A will follow the presentation.
Raúl Esparza, Samira Wiley, Kaliswa Brewster, Naomi Lorrain, Jared McNeill, Jennifer Mudge, Rosemary Prinz, and Carter Redwood.
**********************
Video: “What I Got,” from the world premiere of Duncan Sheik & Nell Benjamin’s Because of Winn Dixie, featuring Bowdie, Chloe Cheers, John Edwards, Ryan Halsaver, Jay Hendrix, Brian Michael Hoffman, Veronica James, Isabel Keating, Crystal Kellogg, Jesse Lenat, Ava Loughlin, Jamie Mann, Sophia Massa, Jacqueline Petroccia, David Poe, Nicole Powell, Roz Ryan, Tess Santarsiero, Kacie Sheik, J. Robert Spencer, Ben Stone-Zelman, Josie Todd, and Mackenzie Warren.
**********************
“Gone With the Wind” has been removed from HBO Max for racism.
**********************
Video: Rebecca Luker and Danny Burstein discuss her ALS diagnosis and ongoing activism. (22:51)
**********************
Video: Rebecca Luker, “Too Late Now” and “Till There Was You” (2000)
**********************
L.A. Theatre Works will present an audio recording of John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night, adapted by Matt Pelfrey, to air Fri. June 12 on radio stations across the U.S., directed by Brian Kite.
Ryan Vincent Anderson, James Morrison, Michael Hammond, Kalen Harrison, Travis Johns, Darren Richardson, and Tom Virtue.
**********************
Video: Jon Rua performs his original dance narrative “ToGeTheR”
**********************
Ellen Tovatt Leary’s “The Understudy” is now available on Paperback, and will be released July 1 on Kindle here.
The book is about the life of a Broadway actress in the 1970s, evoking the familiar rooms, smells, situations and romance of the industry in a way that only a true veteran of the Great White Way can do. Leary’s truthful, sensual, and insightful novel conveys the essence of what it means to be an actress and the high wire act of a woman struggling to balance her career ambition with a life fully lived. A heartfelt love letter to the New York Theater scene of the 1970s.
**********************
Video: Bernadette Peters, “No One is Alone”
**********************
Hollywood’s Blank Theatre Company has extended the FREE online presentations of 2 shows through July 4:
* Nixon on Nixon, by Sean Waldron, directed by Bree Pavey, and featuring Rob Nagle. The president sits alone just days after having resigned from office, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, medication, and memories. Desperate to reclaim some version of glory, he must face the ghosts of his past as he grapples with whether he deserves to have a future.
* Nathan C. Jones, A Love Story?, by Vanessa Claire Stewart & Brendan Milburn, directed by Daniel Henning, and featuring Amir Levi. Told through a series of different conversations Nathan has with himself over the course of his “love” story with Chad.