Little Fish Theatre (San Pedro CA) is accepting scripts for our
19th Annual PICK OF THE VINE short play production to be presented in
January-February 2021. There will be a $75 flat fee royalty payment to
playwrights per play produced. (or $25 flat fee royalty if presented virtually)
***
The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers
supports projects that draw on the research collections at The New York Public
Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (formerly the Humanities and Social
Sciences Library). The Center looks for top-quality writing from academics as
well as from creative writers and independent scholars. Visual artists whose
projects require extensive use of Library collections are also encouraged to
apply. The Center aims to promote dynamic conversation about the humanities,
social sciences, and scholarship at the highest level—within the Center, in
public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows' published work.
Stipend: $75,000
***
SEEKING: Complete original stage musicals which play between
seven and twenty minutes. Works which have been previously produced are
acceptable, as are excerpts from full-length shows, if they can stand up on
their own.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see
the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM ***
How to Use Zoom Like a Theater or Film Professional
Since the pandemic forced theaters to close their doors in
mid-March, there has been no shortage of noble attempts to recreate the magic
of the stage on streaming platforms including Zoom, Instagram Live and YouTube
(where the Broadway interview show “Stars in the House” streams two theater
productions daily). Virtual theater productions, of course, are mediated
through technology and thus not experienced as they would be from the front
mezzanine, and yet they’re not fully polished or always prerecorded, either.
Part of the thrill of theater is its immediacy and, along with it, the
potential for something to fall to pieces.
More...
***
“What Do We Need to Talk About?” (directed by Nelson) takes
place, inevitably, on Zoom, which, for once, isn’t an irritating technical
compromise but an integral plot point. Rather than gathering around the
dining-room table, as they usually do, the siblings congregate online, to catch
up for an hour or so at the end of the day. The first to appear is Barbara
(Maryann Plunkett), who, as we discover, has just come home from the hospital,
where she managed to recover from covid-19. Richard (Sanders, who, like the
rest of the cast, is reprising his role), the lone brother of the family, is
quarantined with her; the fact that he, and not the domestic-minded Barbara,
cooks and serves dinner tells us how serious her condition must have been. (No
actors were harmed, or social-distancing protocols violated, in the making of
this play; Sanders and Plunkett are married.)
More...
***
LESSONS IN DIRECTING YOUTH FOR A ZOOM THEATRE PERFORMANCE
I’m not going to kid you. Creating a virtual stage for remote
learning with students from the ages of 8 to 18 has its challenges. Mostly,
I’ve read about academic theatre programs like Shakespeare at Winedale and
various other universities adjusting to virtual rehearsals. On the other hand,
professional theatre companies similar to Creation Theatre and the Handlebards
(both in the UK) have adapted quickly, with a plethora of online performing
arts offerings. However, it seems that at the moment, their educational
outreach is limited to (stellar!) workshops for Kids.
More...
***
We're witnessing the emergence of a new theatre aesthetic
characterised by a “causal intimacy”, and a “low-tech, low-key, one-on-one,
close-up” approach to theatre-making. Theatre-makers have taken to Zoom,
incorporating sock puppets, soliloquies and miniaturised figures composed of
household items to captivate audiences trapped in their homes.
For example, Shakespeare's The Tempest recently aired on Zoom,
with audiences invited to enter Prospero’s island through the portal of their
phone or computer screens. Audience members were invited to click their fingers
through their microphones to collectively conjure a storm (ibid).
Classic texts such as The Diary of Anne Frank have also been
adapted for Zoom. Anne Frank, her father, Otto, and other cast members have
taken to the online stage, reading from the pages of Anne’s diary from their
isolated Zoom boxes.
More...
***
The Old Globe recently presented the world premiere of a
10-minute play created by Bill Irwin: In-Zoom, featuring Irwin and Broadway
veteran Christopher Fitzgerald.
The two-hander premiered live online on Thursday, May 14, but is
now available to watch any time.
Check out the full play below!
Two comic minds convene a meeting on Zoom and surprise
themselves as they look at our particular pandemic moment and the virtual way
we're living it. Two-time Tony Award winner Bill Irwin (Fool Moon, Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?) and three-time Tony Award nominee Christopher Fitzgerald
(Broadway's Waitress, Young Frankenstein, Wicked) delight in Irwin's beguiling
take on our new reality.
More...
***
A Mexican female senator has issued an apology after going
topless during a government video while trying to change without realising her
camera was still on.
Martha Lucia Micher, 66, was unaware her camera was still on
when she started to get changed during the live meeting last week.
The incident occurred during an official meeting on zoom, a
measure taken by the Mexican government during the coronavirus pandemic to
avoid unnecessary risk of contagion.
More...
***
Theatre-makers quickly adopted Zoom and Facebook as a virtual
venue during the Covid-19 shutdown. Even though theatres have been greenlit to
open from 1 July, the social distancing rules requiring audience members to sit
four square metres apart make it financially non-viable. “We can’t play to 20
people,” says Eamon Flack at Belvoir. At Sydney Theatre Company, Patrick
McIntyre says “it won’t be economically viable to return to the stage until
restrictions are lifted altogether ... until we have greater certainty, we’re
stuck.”
While the theatres wait, the digital seasons roll on. There have
been dozens of productions, ranging from intimate cabarets to full-cast
Shakespeare plays and musicals performed live with actors in isolation, often
streaming from their own homes.
But with viewers fatigued by Zoom meetings during work hours and
theatre-makers increasingly aware of the technical limitations of
teleconferencing platforms, producers are now turning to new digital avenues.
More...
--
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