St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of June 29, 2020

Now including both on-line and live events during the pandemic. To get your event listed here, send an email to calendar [at] stageleft.org.

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."

Sir Stryker

The Blue Strawberry presents a Pop-Up Piano Bar with Sir Stryker, "Piano Bar Star of the Holland America Cruise Line," Tuesdays through Sundays from 6 to 10 pm. There is no cover or minimum and sidewalk seating is available. The club is operating under a "COVID careful" arrangement with restricted indoor capacity and other precautions. The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com/

Circus Flora presents a Virtual Circus Showcase on its web site through June 30th. “You'll see amazing acrobatics, daring flips on horseback, and some of the best-behaved cats we've ever met. Plus, you'll get behind-the-scenes glimpses of performers' lives (and living rooms! and backyards!). It's a show full of awe-inspiring feats, laugh-out-loud moments, and (most importantly) chances to connect at a time when we often feel far apart.” For more information: circusflora.org.

Metro Theater Company presents a two-play summer digital streaming series, featuring the critically acclaimed 2016 production of And In This Corner... Cassius Clay by Idris Goodwin through July 26. The production, which was directed by MTC Artistic Director Julia Flood, is available in a pay-what-you-can pay-per-view environment at www.metroplays.org/watchnow.

Our Leading Ladies
Photo courtesy of The Muny

The Muny presents Muny Magic in Your Home, on-line videos of previous editions of the Muny Magic at the Sheldon cabaret evenings, Mondays and Thursdays at 8:15 pm through July 16. The series continues June 29 and July 2 with Our Leading Ladies. "Danielle Bowen (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, 2016), Ali Ewoldt (Martha Jefferson in 1776, 2019; Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 2017; Maria in West Side Story, 2013), Stephanie Gibson (Gabrielle in Cinderella, 2019; Inga in Young Frankenstein, 2016; Gertie Cummings in Oklahoma!, 2007), and Elena Shaddow (Marian in The Music Man, 2016; Cinderella in Into the Woods, 2015) give heart-stirring tributes to leading ladies of past Muny seasons, including Ethel Merman, Shirley Jones and Bernadette Peters. For more information and to view the video: youtube.com/TheMunyTV.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents its 2020 Digital Festival with a variety of streaming content, including Opening Night Spotlights and the Spring Artists in Training Recital, available at www.opera-stl.org/season-and-events/thisisotsl-digital-festival as well as on its YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/OperaTheatreSTL.

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 St. Louis Shakespeare Festival presents the streaming video Come Together, written for the Zoom videoconferencing app by St. Louis actor/playwright Joe Hanrahan. The video, along with other streaming events from the SHAKE20 festival, is available at the Shakespeare Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/STLShakesFest/

The St. Louis Writers Group streams live recordings of previous play reading sessions at their Facebook page. For more information: 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.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of June 22, 2020

Now including both on-line and live events during the pandemic. To get your event listed here, send an email to calendar [at] stageleft.org.

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."

Sir Stryker

The Blue Strawberry presents a Pop-Up Piano Bar with Sir Stryker, "Piano Bar Star of the Holland America Cruise Line," Tuesdays through Sundays from 6 to 10 pm. There is no cover or minimum and sidewalk seating is available. The club is operating under a "COVID careful" arrangement with restricted indoor capacity and other precautions. The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com/

Circus Flora presents a Virtual Circus Showcase on its web site through June 30th. “You'll see amazing acrobatics, daring flips on horseback, and some of the best-behaved cats we've ever met. Plus, you'll get behind-the-scenes glimpses of performers' lives (and living rooms! and backyards!). It's a show full of awe-inspiring feats, laugh-out-loud moments, and (most importantly) chances to connect at a time when we often feel far apart.” For more information: circusflora.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 through 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.

The Buddy Holly Boys at the Sheldon
Photo courtesy of The Muny

The Muny presents Muny Magic in Your Home, on-line videos of previous editions of the Muny Magic at the Sheldon cabaret evenings, Mondays and Thursdays at 8:15 pm through July 16. The series continues June 22 and 26 with A Night With the Buddy Holly Boys. "After starring as Buddy and the Crickets in The Muny’s 2015 summer blockbuster Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Andy Christopher, Joe Cosmo Cogen, Kyle Lacy and Nathan Yates Douglass give an electrifying performance in the highest-attended Muny Magic at The Sheldon to date. For more information and to view the video: youtube.com/TheMunyTV.

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 St. Louis Shakespeare Festival presents the streaming video Come Together, written for the Zoom videoconferencing app by St. Louis actor/playwright Joe Hanrahan. The video, along with other streaming events from the SHAKE20 festival, is available at the Shakespeare Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/STLShakesFest/

The St. Louis Writers Group streams live recordings of previous play reading sessions at their Facebook page. For more information: 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.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of June 15, 2020

Now including both on-line and live events 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 Blue Strawberry presents a Pop-Up Piano Bar with Sir Stryker, "Piano Bar Star of the Holland America Cruise Line," Tuesdays through Sundays from 6 to 10 pm, beginning on June 16th. There is no cover or minimum and sidewalk seating is available. The club is operating under a "COVID careful" arrangement with restricted indoor capacity and other precautions. The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com/

Circus Flora presents a Virtual Circus Showcase on its web site through June 30th. “You'll see amazing acrobatics, daring flips on horseback, and some of the best-behaved cats we've ever met. Plus, you'll get behind-the-scenes glimpses of performers' lives (and living rooms! and backyards!). It's a show full of awe-inspiring feats, laugh-out-loud moments, and (most importantly) chances to connect at a time when we often feel far apart.” For more information: circusflora.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 through 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.

Beth Leavel

The Muny presents Muny Magic in Your Home, on-line videos of previous editions of the Muny Magic at the Sheldon cabaret evenings, Mondays and Thursdays at 8:15 pm, June 15 through July 16. The series continues June 18 with Muny favorite and Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner, Beth Leavel. The video will also feature a guest appearance from Tony Award nominee Lara Teeter of Webster University, “as well as other very special surprise artists.” Ms. Leavel’s music director is Phil Reno and she is joined by Vince Clark on bass and Nick Savage on drums. For more information and to view the video: youtube.com/TheMunyTV.

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 Riverside Players presents a virtual performance of The Audition by Don Zolidis on June 20 at 8pm. All proceeds will be donated to high school theatre programs in the area who lost money/their spring show due to COVID-19. For more information: www.onthestage.com/show/the-riverside-players1/the-audition-85220

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: stlshakes.org.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents SHAKE20 through 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.

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.

St. Louis theatre calendar a/o June 12, 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."

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 through 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.

The Muny presents Muny Magic in Your Home, on-line videos of previous editions of the Muny Magic at the Sheldon cabaret evenings, Mondays and Thursdays at 8:15 pm, June 15 through July 16. The series opens June 15 and 18 with Muny favorite and Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner, Beth Leavel. The video will also feature a guest appearance from Tony Award nominee Lara Teeter, “as well as other very special surprise artists.” Ms. Leavel’s music director is Phil Reno and she is joined by Vince Clark on bass and Nick Savage on drums. For more information: muny.org.

New Jewish Theatre presents a virtual reading of the new play DELI: A Slice of St. Louis via Facebook video June 9 – 13. “The Jewish delicatessen is an American institution. In DELI, a Saint Louis delicatessen must contend with a changing city, and owner David Narinsky—as well as the ghost of his father—must tackle his beloved business’s uncertain future. By interweaving past and present, the play tracks how change itself is perhaps as traditional as pastrami or kugel. DELI invites us to see how, at the deli, a multicultural America continues to evolve.” You can view the reading at facebook.com

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents special live celebration of Opening Night Spotlight: Susannah on Saturday, June 13, 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." For information on this and other streaming opera events: www.opera-stl.org

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 through 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.

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.

St. Louis theatre calendar a/o 11 June, 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."

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 through 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.

New Jewish Theatre presents a virtual reading of the new play DELI: A Slice of St. Louis via Facebook video June 9 – 13. “The Jewish delicatessen is an American institution. In DELI, a Saint Louis delicatessen must contend with a changing city, and owner David Narinsky—as well as the ghost of his father—must tackle his beloved business’s uncertain future. By interweaving past and present, the play tracks how change itself is perhaps as traditional as pastrami or kugel. DELI invites us to see how, at the deli, a multicultural America continues to evolve.” You can view the reading at facebook.com

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents special live celebration of Opening Night Spotlight: Susannah on Saturday, June 13, 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 www.opera-stl.org

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 through 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.

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.

Go digital or go extinct: A conversation with The Muny's Kwofe Coleman

On Monday, June 8th, The Muny, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, announced the postponement of their entire 2020 season to the summer of 2021. I talked with Muny Managing Director Kwofe Coleman about what that means for Muny staff and audiences this year.

Chuck Lavazzi (CL): So, this is the first time in the Muny's 102-year history that it has had to postpone an entire season.

Kwofe Coleman (KC): Yes. It's a postponement and not a cancellation since we will do the same shows we had already announced for 2020 next year.

Matilda at The Muny 2019
Photo courtesy of The Muny

CL: I can't say I was surprised to hear this, since it's basically what every other performing arts organization in the area is doing as well.

KC: Right. I think we all face similar if not the same sets of obstacles.

CL: Because a large public space presents a heightened risk no matter what kind of space it is.

KC: Yeah. And when you add in the model, there just is not a feasible way to present musical theatre in a socially distant setting, or with masks or some of the very necessary precautions that we're seeing that everyone is participating in. We looked at all of them, every opportunity. We've been looking at this very seriously and closely since the last day we stopped working in the office on March 13th. The reality is that after several months, even though there seem to be some glimmers of hope and improvement, the public health landscape has just not improved enough for us to do this successfully--not in 2020.

Cinderella, 2019
Photo courtesy of The Muny

CL: And there's so much uncertainty also.

KC: Yeah, there's a significant amount of uncertainty. And we're not the only ones facing this. This is a global pandemic, so everyone is facing a whole set of uncertainties. We looked at the ones that are most closely related to us and there were not enough definite answers or safe ways to really proceed. There's so much to look at, from all the professions that work in and support musical theatre, including our audiences, the community, and staff, cast, and crews.

CL: This is something that maybe a lot of audience members might not think about, the way the pandemic raises serious challenges for performers as well as for the audiences--especially in musical theatre.

Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 2018
Photo courtesy of The Muny

KC: Yeah, and if you follow musical theatre you know that Broadway has announced that they won't reopen before Labor Day. The performers, the stage managers, the crew, and the musicians--there are so many people that are in close proximity. The emotion you convey in a scene in musical theatre is impossible without human touch or close face-to-face contact. For an orchestra to play together in a pit is challenging. So the simple reality is that, do you create a space where the public is gathering in large amounts at a time when that is not the guidance given, at a time when you can't guarantee safety? When you look at it that way the answer becomes pretty simple and clear.

CL: Yes, it's pretty much impossible under the current circumstances. And, of course, you're not the only performing arts organization facing these issues. I'm on the board of a couple of them locally and we're in the same boat. And I noticed that the Muny is dealing with this the way many other performing arts groups are by offering digital material online.

Newsies, 2017
Photo courtesy of The Munhy

KC: Yes, if digital was not a part of your strategy before it certainly is now. We're fortunate in that many of our internal teams, starting with our marketing team in March, have been able to offer glimpses behind the scenes, lookbacks, different new, fun, and engaging content digitally. And now as we look toward the summer season, we're going to air some of the "Muny Magic" shows that we did over the past several years while we continue with some of the smaller pieces. And then when we hit July, we're going to offer this variety show series of new content we're producing now that will feature some of the youth performers, local performers who are part of the Muny family, and performers from across the world who have been here and will send in video. It's a different world, and we're all learning how to do this very quickly. We're learning on our feet. It's fun to see our staff engage with this and it's fun to see our peers in other institutions do the same. And to see how audiences take this all in through this new and hopefully temporary "normal."

CL: Yes. I saw the Sondheim 90th Birthday Tribute recently and I thought that was a good example.

KC: Yeah, and the Regional Arts Commission did the "Arts United" special a couple weekends ago that gave all these institutions a chance to showcase their work and help raise funds to support artists across the country.

CL: Everybody has had to face the reality of going digital or going extinct, at least for the foreseeable future.

KC: Yes, we all have to shift a little bit.

The Music Man, 2016
Photo courtesy of The Muny

CL: I want to talk more about the "Muny Magic at the Sheldon" series. I managed to miss every one of those so I'm so happy to see that some of them are going to be available now.

KC: Yeah, those have been a fun way we've had in the past few years to stay connected in our normal off season. And it's a smaller venue so not everybody has had a chance to see those. So, they can expect to see the faces and hear the stories of actors they have come to know and love and think of as family. We're bringing back Beth Leavel [most recently seen at the Muny as Rose in "Gypsy" in 2018] and the boys from the Buddy Holly show ["Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," 2015]. We had magnificent a performance from the star of our "Cinderella" this past year [Mikela Bennett]. All of those are chances to look back not only at "Muny Magic" performances but at the shows those people were in previously and re-imagine that magic. So while we're all spending more time indoors for sake of public safety and public health, we're excited to have some contact with people to enjoy.

CL: And these will be on five consecutive Mondays beginning on June 15th.

My Fair Lady, 2015
Photo courtesy of The Muny

KC: That's right, because June 15th was our originally scheduled opening. They will be broadcast at our web site and we'll do a follow-up announcement with more details.

CL: Can you talk more about the original content that coming up, or is that still in the formative stages?

KC: It's still in the formative stages, so we'll have follow-up announcements on that as well. The basis of it will be a variety show format with some video clips, conversations, interviews, and new performances by people from their homes. So, again, it's everyone learning how to exist in the digital sphere and putting a show together for our audience in that way.

CL: How does all this affect people who have already bought tickets for the 2020 season?

KC: We'll be contacting ticket holders individually to give them the options about what to do with the value of those tickets. We are a non-profit organization and currently looking at a $4 million deficit, so subscribers will have the opportunity to maintain their investment by turning it into a donation, get a refund, or apply it as a credit for next year. Everyone who has a ticket will have options.

CL: And since you guys, like a lot of other performing arts organizations, are operating at a deficit right now, I guess this would be a good time to make a donation to the Muny as well.

KC: it would. I know people are going through difficult times, but the reason we're 102 years old is because of the support and loyalty of this community. So we hope to rely on some of that support in the coming weeks and months as we all work towards being back and ready to go in 2021.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

St. Louis theatre calendar a/o June 8, 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."

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 through 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: Susannah on Saturday, June 13, 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 www.opera-stl.org

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 through 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 a live reading parts 3 and 4 of The Huddled Masses, a cycle of four short plays by St. Louis playwright Brad Slavik, on Monday at 7 pm, June 8. The event 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.