Today’s Highlights:
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2012 Lincoln Center Theater production), by Christopher Durang, directed by Nicholas Martin, featuring David Hyde Pierce, Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen, Billy Magnussen, Shalita Grant, and Genevieve Angelson, begins FREE on-demand streaming at 7 PM ET here.
Romeo y Julieta audio play, adapted by Saheem Ali & Ricardo Pérez González, and directed by Ali, featuring Lupita Nyong’o (Julieta), Juan Castano (Romeo), Carlo Albán (Benvolio), Karina Arroyave (Apothecary), Erick Betancourt (Abram), Michael Braugher (Balthasar), Carlos Carrasco (Lord Montague), Ivonne Coll (Nurse), John J. Concado (Peter), Hiram Delgado (Tybalt), Guillermo Diaz (Gregory), Sarah Nina Hayon (Lady Montague), Kevin Herrera (Ensemble), Modesto Lacen (Prince Escalus/Capulet’s Cousin), Florencia Lozano (Capulet), Irene Sofia Lucio (Mercutio), Keren Lugo (Sister Joan), Benjamin Luis McCracken (Paris’s Page), Julio Monge (Friar Lawrence), Javier Muñoz (Paris), David Zayas (Sampson), and Tony Plana (Chorus), begins FREE streaming here, and on all podcast platforms.
The Sound Inside (audio play of the 2020 Broadway production), by Adam Rapp, directed by David Cromer, featuring Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman, begins streaming on Audible.
Casa Valentina (2014 Manhattan Theatre Club production), by Harvey Fierstein, directed by Joe Mantello, featuring Reed Birney, John Cullum, Gabriel Ebert, Tom McGowan, Patrick Page, Nick Westrate, and Mare Winningham, streams for FREE at 12 PM ET here.
Becky Shaw benefit reading, by Gina Gionfriddo, directed by Tim Realbuto, featuring Jennifer Damiano (Becky Shaw), Andy Mientus (Andrew Porter), Sheria Irving (Suzanna Slater), Nick Gaswirth (Max Garrett), and Rema Webb (Susan Slater), streams for FREE at 8 PM ET here.
Gutenberg! benefit filmed presentation, in support of BC/EFA, by Scott Brown & Anthony King, featuring Alex Prakken and Bobby Conte Thornton, streams for FREE at 8 PM ET here.
The Sound Inside audio recording, by Adam Rapp, directed by David Cromer, featuring (original cast) Mary-Louise Parker and Will Hochman, released on Audible.
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Video: Stars in the House, a cast reunion Broadway’s 2018 production of Head Over Heels, with special guests Bonnie Milligan, Peppermint, Alexandra Socha, Andrew Durand, Jeremy Kushnier, Rachel York, and Tom Alan Robbins. (1:39:46).
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Roundabout Theatre Company has announced the launch of the Refocus Project, a multiyear effort to elevate rarely produced dramas by formerly marginalized theatrical voices to the forefront of the American theatrical canon. The readings are free, with all suggested donations supporting Black Theatre United.
The centerpiece of the project is a series of play readings, with the first season spotlighting historically overlooked Black dramatists from the 20th century.
Rachel (Apr. 23), by Angelina Weld Grimké, directed by Miranda Haymon.
Home (Apr. 30), Samm-Art Williams, directed by Kenny Leon.
I Gotta Get Home (May 7), by Shirley Graham Du Bois, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III.
Spunk (May 14), by Zora Neale Hurston, directed by Lili-Anne Brown
Wine in the Wilderness (May 21), by Alice Childress, directed by Dominique Rider
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Burbank’s Garry Marshall Theatre is accepting submissions for its 4th annual New Works Festival, which will stream virtually Sept. 13-26.
The Festival will present five finalist playwrights in livestream virtual readings. Each script will be paired with Los Angeles actors and directors collaborating with the playwrights in their development process.
The producers are increasingly interested in diverse new work that reflects an original concept or theme, and characters whose language expresses their individual worldview.
The festival will employ a ‘blinded’ submission and review process to select its five finalists.
The theatre is accepting full-length plays that reflect a complete evening of theatre, with requiring no more than six actors (doubling is permitted if clearly indicated in the script).
Eligible plays should not have received a past professional production.
Script submissions require a $20 fee that supports the festival submission and review process.
Finalist playwrights will receive a small honorarium.
Click here for additional information and to submit.
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A concert version of Hair, postponed due to the pandemic, will now be presented live on June 13 at the London Palladium, and June 27 at the Southampton Mayflower Theatre, directed by Arlene Phillips. Click here for information & tickets for both venues.
Luke Bayer, Nicole Raquel Dennis, Jordan Luke, Brace Mouat, Millie O’Connell, Jodie Steele, and Layton Williams.
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Chicago’s Goodman Theatre presents upcoming Future Labs readings:
Tokens of Promise (Mar. 20 at 7 PM CT), by Ada A., directed by Sydney Chatman, featuring Cher Álvarez, Brianna Buckley, Caroline Chu, Meagan Dilworth, Robert Isaac, and Steve Key.. 
There’s only one open “diversity” analyst position at this start-up. And the minorities must duke it out to access the sweet privilege of employment. A wicked satire about the modern-day job search and scarcity mentality, Ada A.’s new play exposes the inherent competition in employment that leads us to forsake our humanity out of necessity and survival.
How To Catch Creation (available now, through Mar. 28), by Christina Anderson, directed by Niegel Smith, featuring Karen Aldridge, Ayanna Bria Bakari, Jasmine Bracey, Bernard Gilbert, Maya Vinice Prentiss, and Keith Randolph Smith. A young writer’s life turns upside down when her girlfriend drops some unexpected news. Fifty years later, four artists feel the reverberations of that moment—and its unexpected consequences — as their lives intersect in pursuit of creative passion and legacy. The play dissects the universal act of creation to inspire the dreamers and idealists in us all.
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Theatre Forward and Bank of America will provide grants totaling $300,000 in the first round of its ACTivate Awards.
The funding will be allocated evenly to six theatre companies around the country to use toward projects that advance Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives.
Theatres receiving 2021 grants:
Actors Theatre of Louisville (Louisville)
American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco)
American Repertory Theater (Cambridge)
Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles)
The Old Globe (San Diego)
Trinity Repertory Company (Providence)
Click here for additional information.
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Hudson Stage presents a reading of Brenda Withers’ one-act play, The Parrot Trap, to stream Sat. Mar 20 at 8 PM ET, directed by Dan Foster.
Christopher Fitzgerald, Richard Hollis, Peggy J. Scott, Denise Bessette, and Oliva Sklar.
The play takes a look at our attachment to privilege and how hard it can be to let go of something that was never really ours.
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The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has announced its Tech Kits, which is a resource to enable performing artists to document their works and publish them online. The kit contains a number of items that are commonly used to document and post post-performance work online. Anyone over the age of 18 with a New York Public Library card is eligible to borrow a kit.
To help provide resources for performing artists during this unprecedented time, the Library is offering tech kits, including various hardware and software, to enable performing artists to document their works and publish them online.
Included in the kits:
12.9″ iPad Pro with cellular data
Logitech Slim Folio Pro case with integrated keyboard
Logitech B100 Corded Mouse
AKG Lyra USB microphone
Behringer HC 2000B Wireless Headphones with Bluetooth
Xcellon USB c – 4 port USB 3.1 hub
Connection cables and chargers
M-Audio Keystation Mini 32 MK3 MIDI keyboard (available with select kits)
How to borrow a kit: Simply search the catalog for “Tech Kit,” and request the item as you would any other circulating materials from the Library. Select your preferred grab-and-go location for pick-up. Kits are available for between 1 and 3 months.
Pick up information: You will receive an email when your tech kit is ready for pick-up. You will be able to then pick it up within 24 hours at the grab-and-go location you indicated when placing your hold.
Email techkits@nypl.org if you require further information.
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Broadway’s Future Songbook Series, presented by Arts and Artists of Tomorrow, will continue Mon. Mar. 29 at 5:30 PM with a virtual concert, celebrating the music and lyrics of Billy Reece, sponsored by the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. 
Click here for free tickets.
Billy Recce, Joseph Frederick Allen, Meg Bush, Taylor Crousore, Roger Dawley, Scott Richard Foster, Jordana Kagan, Sarah Kleist, Amanda Lopez, Emil McNamara, Mia J. Pak. Rachel Ravel, Rose Recce, Lauren Robinson, and Lexi Spera.
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Treasure Island, performed for both in-person audiences and via simulcast, will livestream May 14 & 15 at 8 PM ET at Long Island’s Radial Park at Hallets Point Play ( drive-in venue).
Rob McClure (Long John Silver) and Maggie Lakis (Jim Hawkins), with Victoria Huston-Elem, Christian Elan Ortiz, Kurt Uy, and Stuart Williams.