Plum Reading
Welcome to the latest edition of Plum Reading, my weekly roundup of arts and culture to view online.
Like so many of us, I am dearly missing live theatre and quite frankly, all things arts and culture. And, while certain parts of this experience are currently on hold, the arts live on and God bless our artists, they are still performing and there is much for us to enjoy…virtually, at least.
Here are this week’s picks. Happy viewing!
Okay, for us Broadway fans, tonight (Thursday, June 11) is A Night! The New York Times is launching Offstage, a series that explores the creations and concerns of theatre actors during this time. For the inaugural session, they have brought together a line-up that quite frankly has to be read to be believed. We will see, amongst other star performers, Mary-Louise Parker delivering a monologue from The Sound Inside, Elizabeth Stanley performing a song from Jagged Little Pill and the great one herself, Ms. Patti LuPone and the cast of Company. I mean, seriously what else are you going to do tonight? Your laundry? I don’t think so. The funs starts at 7 pm ET.
And, thanks to Toronto’s Soulpepper, we have more great performances to look forward to look forward to on Friday night as well. Fresh Ink, Soulpepper’s digital series, is bringing us two incredible artists: Idris Goodwin (And In This Corner Cassius Clay, How We Got On, and Hype Man: A Break Beat Play) and Motion (Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape, Aneemah’s Spot, Nightmare Dream). Both will read excerpts from their newest work, which blends theatre and hip hop to tell stories shared across North America. This event will be co-hosted by Soulpepper’s amazing artistic director Weyni Mengesha, and special guest Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, incoming artistic director of Obsidian Theatre Company. It starts at 5 pm ET.
We can always to count on The Public Theatre to tap into the mood of the moment and help us have the conversations we need to be having right now. The Apply Family Plays, which are part of playwright Richard Nelson’s The Rhinebeck Panorama, have been a staple of The Public’s line-up for the past 10 years. We last saw them in 2014 and well, they are now back — via zoom — in an hour-long play. Available to stream until June 28, this is a truly engaging hour of theatre that is well worth your time.
And, I am sharing this because honestly if you have lived your whole life and not yet seen the amazing Bridget Everett, wow, are you in for a treat!!
I literally have no words to describe this woman but I’ll try to do her justice. She is an immensely talented cabernet performer with a larger than life stage presence. She’s a regular at Joe’s Pub in NYC and well, this has to be one of my favourite shows of all time. It’s called Tender Moments and the promo for it read, “You can call it making love, you can call it having sex, but either way, someone is going to get f**ked.” I’ll leave you with that….Enjoy :)
And, an ask: While we’re enjoying these wonderful performances, let’s remember that for the arts organizations producing this incredible content, this is their livelihood; not a hobby. If we can, now is our time to continue to support our incredible arts community!
If you’d like to receive these weekly updates, send me a note at maggiefairs@gmail.com to added to my mailing list.