Melting ice on the coast of Adélie Land in East Antarctica. REUTERS/PAULINE ASKIN Fires raging. Glaciers melting. Hurricanes blowing. Icons dying. And COVID-19 still on the rampage. Meantime national leaders ignore, deflect and lie. Lies and liars. Mendacity.
One summer I had the amazing experience of working with Tennessee Williams, who years prior had written Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Most of you know this, but it bears repeating. In it Big Daddy says: "What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death." And Brick declares: "Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an' death's the other." Depressing. But there's more to it. Tennessee also has Brick say: "Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house."
I was in a play once, The Boy Who Changed the World, by Patricia Malango, a play about a prehistoric teenager at a time when homo sapiens were at the precipice of extinction. The boy fails at hunting, fighting and killing, but excels at painting, poetry and music. He's the one who saves the world by inventing the wheel. Yes, a cheesy parable. I played the narrator. At the top of the show I said: "What an age to be alive in - everything violently new and a challenge! The world full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered!"
Tennessee Williams and Patricia Malango, two very different artists whose words resonate today. These are depressing, uncertain times, surely, but they offer us a chance at creating something new and better. With our artists leading the way.
It's easy to be sad, depressed all holed up in our COVID Cubbyholes. Let's take the lead, as artists always do. Let's be through with lies and liars. Let's embrace the possibilities this unique moment in history affords us.
- David Fuller, President, NTC
One summer I had the amazing experience of working with Tennessee Williams, who years prior had written Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Most of you know this, but it bears repeating. In it Big Daddy says: "What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death." And Brick declares: "Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an' death's the other." Depressing. But there's more to it. Tennessee also has Brick say: "Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house."
I was in a play once, The Boy Who Changed the World, by Patricia Malango, a play about a prehistoric teenager at a time when homo sapiens were at the precipice of extinction. The boy fails at hunting, fighting and killing, but excels at painting, poetry and music. He's the one who saves the world by inventing the wheel. Yes, a cheesy parable. I played the narrator. At the top of the show I said: "What an age to be alive in - everything violently new and a challenge! The world full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered!"
Tennessee Williams and Patricia Malango, two very different artists whose words resonate today. These are depressing, uncertain times, surely, but they offer us a chance at creating something new and better. With our artists leading the way.
It's easy to be sad, depressed all holed up in our COVID Cubbyholes. Let's take the lead, as artists always do. Let's be through with lies and liars. Let's embrace the possibilities this unique moment in history affords us.
- David Fuller, President, NTC
Many NTC members are at the forefront of the COVID battle for theater in the USA.
Helmed by NTC member and Artistic Director Risa Brainin, LAUNCH PAD at UC Santa Barbara commissioned 24 playwrights to write monologues and short plays for the Zoom platform. Alone, Together was performed in June, and the collection was recently published by Dramatic Publishing. All 39 pieces are available to be licensed now and include plays by NTC members Arlene Hutton and James Still as well as Stavis winner Mia Chung. Member Liz Engelman served as festival dramaturg. Brainin says, “The plays are wonderful, and we hope they are useful to NTC members seeking material for both the classroom and virtual performances.” Excerpts can be read on the DPC website.
At Playmakers Repertory, in Chapel Hill, NC, NTC member and Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch has announced their all virtual 2020-2021 season, ALL TOO HUMAN - EXPLORING THE RESILIENCE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. Their website states the season "explores the resilience of the human spirit in the face of personal and national upheaval," and "was born out of the need to adapt, learn, and change." It features six streamed performances "ranging from audio drama to film, ensemble to solo work, all enjoyed in the safety of home until we can gather again as a community."
Out of Juneau, Alaska, NTC member and Perseverance Theatre Artistic Director Leslie Ishii began their 20-21 Season with a co-production with ACT, In Love and Warcraft by Madhuri Shekar, an on-line performance they dub Live Video Theatre. The audience watches live from their homes; the actors are socially distanced, often performing in different states; and through design, lighting, and camera angles, the actors appear to be interacting in the same space. Outside the stage, Perseverance has also been working with The City and Borough of Juneau to produce several health and safety PSAs in response to the global health crisis.
In Florida, the 32nd Season at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre has been announced by Artistic Director, and NTC member, Jim Helsinger. Orlando Shakes will present virtual productions this fall and begin live performances under stringent CDC guidelines beginning in the winter. Up first, a video on demand performance: Poe: Deep Into That Darkness Peering.
Photo: Jack Buckley, The Oregonian 2013 NTC Outstanding Theatre Oregon Shakespeare Festival is taking a lead in helping those in its region devastated by the forest fires. Through its "We Will Rebuild Together" web-page, it is promoting how to help its region and its theatrical family get back from these difficult times. Though not in production due to the pandemic, it is having its virtual "Dare to Dream" gala this fall. [Photo at right: OSF stage hand & IATSE Local 154 member Jack Buckley was one of many civilians who helped dig trenches & support those evacuating at the start of the Ashland Fires. #OSFTogether]
In Pittsburgh, NTC member and Quantum Theatre Artistic Director Karla Boos has announced its 20-21 Season of three plays in three different site-specific productions where artists and audience will be safely socially distanced. The plays, An Odyssey, Chimerica and The Current War will be staged in an outdoors skating rink, a park and the entire floor of the United Steelworkers Union building. Boos states: "Each show has a very large site ...custom-built, distanced seating, for a small number of people, with safe and distanced ways in and out. We hope Quantum, free from four walls, can lead us back to live theater, even if it looks a little different..." The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports on the season here.
In New York City, Woodie King Jr., NTC member and Artistic Director of New Federal Theatre, has announced the start of New Federal Theatre's 50th Season. On September 21 and 28 they will present in two parts, Black Words Matter, a 2020 Virtual Poetry Jam, and a reading series in October: 5 Plays Illuminating the Social Injustices of America. The plays: Do Lord Remember Me, Mr. DuBois & Miss Ovington, From the Mississippi Delta, Medal of Honor Rag, and Stories of the Old Days
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