St. Louis theatre calendar a/o May 29, 2020

Now including on-line events along with live events (if any) during the pandemic. To get your event listed here, send an email to calendar [at] stageleft.org.

MUTE: A Play for Zoom

St. Louis playwright Nancy Bell's MUTE: A Play for Zoom, which was performed live via Facebook on April 5, 2020, is available as a live stream at vimeo.com. "In a world much like ours, there exists a video conference call. And in this call, there are academics, confusion, fire and...one hamster. An experimental theatre piece that steals rabidly from Ionesco, Beckett, real life and Chekhov. The play was for performance on Zoom by Nancy Bell and directed by Lucy Cashion."

The Zoom cast of Moscow!

ERA Theatre presents a live Zoom videoconference version of Moscow!, its drinking game version of Chekov's The Three Sisters, Thursdays and Fridays from 8-9 pm and Saturdays from 1-2 pm through May 30. "Olga, Irina, and Masha are sisters living in an insignificant town in Russia. They spend a lot of time talking about how all they really want to do is go back to Moscow, where everything is better. The town's people come and go through the sisters' house, which they own with their brother, Andrey. Everyone is so emotionally erratic - is it because they're Russian? Perhaps it's because they're drunk. Three Sisters examines the frivolity of privileged life; Moscow! intensifies it with live music, dancing, and vodka. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ERA will live-stream its performances of Moscow! and all artists will perform from the safety of their respective isolated locations." Admission is free but you must sign up in advance and download the Zoom conferencing app to view the event. For more information: www.eratheatre.org.

Metro Theater Company presents a two-play summer digital streaming series, including the 2019 world premiere of The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus by Eric Coble (available May 27 - June 28) and the critically acclaimed 2016 production of And In This Corner... Cassius Clay by Idris Goodwin (available June 23 - July 26). Both productions, which were directed by MTC Artistic Director Julia Flood, will be available in a pay-what-you-can pay-per-view environment at www.metroplays.org/watchnow. Prior to this summer streaming series, both productions were part of a virtual international festival and conference hosted earlier in May by TYA-USA, the national service organization for theaters for youth and families, attended by over 1,200 theater and education professionals.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents special live celebration of Opening Night Spotlight: Die Fledermaus, on Saturday, May 30, at 7 pm, marking the night on which this festive production would have opened. "During the Opening Night Spotlight, you’ll get to see set model photos, design inspirations, and original video content, in addition to hearing from some of our artists and creative team." The live stream will be available at live.geniecast.com/stlopera-diefledermaus/

On Sunday, May 31, at 7 pm Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, in collaboration with 14 other arts organizations and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC), presents Arts United STL, a free virtual benefit in support of RAC's Artist Relief Fund, which provides critical aid to St. Louis working artists whose livelihoods have been critically interrupted by the pandemic. The even includes performances from local arts organizations, including The Big Muddy Dance Company, The Black Rep, Circus Flora, COCA, Jazz St. Louis, The Muny, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Ballet, St. Louis Children's Choirs, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, The Sheldon, STAGES St. Louis, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, and more. For more information: www.opera-stl.org/explore-and-learn/for-everyone/arts-united-stl

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, in collaboration with Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, The Public Theater and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, present Play at Home, a series of micro-commissioned short plays from some of the American theatre's most exciting and prominent playwrights. These new plays – which all run 10 minutes or less – are available for the public to download, read and perform at home for free at playathome.org.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis invites budding young writers throughout the nation to develop and submit plays to for inclusion in its all-new WiseWrite Digital Play Festival. Open to all students grades 4 through 12, this online celebration of storytelling will culminate in June when professional actors perform selected student submissions over Zoom. To help students develop the skills to write their first plays, The Rep will release a six-part online learning curriculum - one part each week through the end of May. For more information: repstl.org/wisewrite.

The Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park
Photo by Philip Hamer

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents plays, readings, and other features as part of its #SHAKESPEARETV lineup through June 21st. Current offerings include their made-for-video production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline and readings of selections from Camu's The Plague. For more information: https://stlshakes.org.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents SHAKE20 May 29 - June 20. The SHAKE20 festival consists of 20 - 30 minute adaptations of Shakespeare's 38 plays by local individuals and theatre companies designed for a live streaming experience. A new SHAKE20 event will be streamed live from the Shakespeare Festival Facebook page at facebook.com/pg/STLShakesFest/videos/ nightly except for Mondays. For more information and a complete schedule of events: stlshakes.org/shake20.

St. Louis Actors' Studio offers short films written and (mostly) directed by Neil LaBute from Contemptible Entertainment through their Twitter account through June 15. The lineup changes every Monday morning. For the current list, visit twitter.com/@stlas1.

The St. Louis Writers Group streams live readings of The Huddled Masses, a cycle of four short plays by St. Louis playwright Brad Slavik, on Mondays at 7 pm, June 1 and 8. Parts 1 and 2 will be streamed on the 1st, and parts 3 and 4 on the 8th. The events takes place via live Facebook streaming at facebook.com

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

For information on events beyond this week, check out the searchable database at the Regional Arts Commission's Events Calendar.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.