St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of August 10, 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."

Leslie Craig

The Blue Strawberry presents Leslie Craig with An Amy Winehouse Tribute on Friday, August 14, at 8 pm. “Amy Winehouse gets an acoustic and intimate tribute from the incredible Leslie Craig, who does Amy justice.”  Regarding coronavirus safety, The Blue Strawberry says: “Aerosol scientists suggest that singing is an activity associated with an increased risk of audience exposure to the SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In order to minimize that risk, the singers in shows presented at Blue Strawberry starting this August will all perform from as far upstage as possible. Our stage is 10 feet deep, and they will perform at the very back of the stage next to the wall. Supporting musicians will all be masked. We will also pull back our front row of seats 4 feet from the lip of the stage. This will create at least 12 feet of space between the singer and the front row of audience members. We have also reduced our inside capacity from 100 to fewer than half that number.” The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com.

Janet Evra

The Blue Strawberry presents Janet Evra with A Night of Joni Mitchell on Saturday, August 15, at 8 pm. “British-Americanjazz singer Janet Evra returns to Blue Strawberry to perform her favorite tunesfrom her favorite singer-songwriter: Joni Mitchell.  This special showwill feature Joni's hits including "A Case of You", "Both SidesNow", "Woodstock", "Little Green", as well as somedeeper cuts.  Janet will talk about her lifelong love for Joni and shareher insights into Joni's wonderful songwriting and storytelling, and she willplay guitar and bass, performing some songs solo and others with her acoustictrio featuring Will Buchanan on guitar and Drew Weiss on drums.”  Regarding coronavirus safety, The Blue Strawberry says: “Aerosol scientists suggest that singing is an activity associated with an increased risk of audience exposure to the SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In order to minimize that risk, the singers in shows presented at Blue Strawberry starting this August will all perform from as far upstage as possible. Our stage is 10 feet deep, and they will perform at the very back of the stage next to the wall. Supporting musicians will all be masked. We will also pull back our front row of seats 4 feet from the lip of the stage. This will create at least 12 feet of space between the singer and the front row of audience members. We have also reduced our inside capacity from 100 to fewer than half that number.” The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com.

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/

Fly North Theatricals presents three new free digital series. Their new digital line up includes The Spotlight Series, the Grown-Up Theatre Kids Podcast, and Gin and the Tonic. The Spotlight Series highlights the Fly North family of students and actors performing songs from previous FNT shows. In the Grown-Up Theatre Kids podcast you can join Colin Healy and Bradley Rohlf every other Friday as they explore life after drama club and what it means to make a living in theatre far from the lights of broadway. Gin and the Tonic is a "reckless unpacking of music history’s weirdest stories hosted by Colin Healy.” The Spotlight Series and Gin and the Tonic are available at the Fly North Theatricals YouTube channel and the Grown-Up Theatre Kids podcast can also be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Sticher, other podcast platforms. All three are updated on a bi-weekly (every other week) basis.

The Fox Performing Arts Foundation presents the 10th annual St. Louis Teen Talent Competition Finals on Monday, August 10, at 8 pm on PBS Nine. “The final round of the competition was originally scheduled to be performed in front of a live audience in April at the Fox but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to a partnership with Nine PBS, the finalists were provided the opportunity to compete and perform on the Fox Stage for a special broadcast.” For more information:  www.foxpacf.org/

Mark Ballas and company in Jersey Boys (2018)
Photo by Phillip Hamer

The Muny presents The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour Live! on Monday and Thursday, August 3 and 6, at 8:15 pm at youtube.com/themunytv. This week's episode includes archive video clips from “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” “Jersey Boys,” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”; Muny artists and real-life couple Jason Gotay and Michael Hartung performing “Song on the Sand” from “La Cage aux Folles”; members of The Muny’s 2018 cast of “Meet Me In St. Louis reuniting via the Internet to sing the famous title song; and "Do-Re-Mi," a special, filmed-at-The-Muny song and dance performance featuring members of The Muny Kids and Teens.  For more information: muny.org/varietyhour/

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. “Through the incredible work of our education department, we've posted an online curriculum at repstl.org/wisewrite that teaches students how to construct plays and characters. We’re accepting submissions from students grades 4 through 12 from throughout the nation for inclusion in the festival, which will feature performances by professional actors.” Submissions will be accepted through August 31st. For more information:  repstl.org/wisewrite.

Hamlet vs. The State of Denmark

The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival presents streaming videos from the SHAKE20 festival, including re-imagined, condensed versions of classic Shakespeare plays and new takes on old favorites like the mock trial Hamlet vs. The State of Denmark, at the Shakespeare Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/STLShakesFest/

The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival is now taking reservations for A Late Summer Night’s Stroll, which will take place in Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park Tuesday through Sunday evenings, August 12 – September 6. “See the park like you’ve never seen it before on this 80-minute jaunt full of poetry, music and art. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 'A Late Summer Night’s Stroll' puts you at the center of the story: four lovers’ escape to an enchanted wood and the magical night of transformation that follows. A socially-distant self-guided tour of iconic spots and hidden gems, featuring custom installations, open-air performances and charming vignettes.” The event is free and all time slots are currently taken, but a waitlist is available . For more information: stlshakes.org/production/stroll

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

The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis presents Something Spoken: Tennessee Williams On the Air alternating Saturdays at 5 pm on Classic 107.3 FM. Each episode will air live and then be available for streaming at classic1073.org until the day before the next episode is broadcast. Episodes include a production of a Williams one-act play, followed by commentary from Williams scholar Thomas Mitchell.  Currently A Perfect Analysis Given By A Parrot is streaming until August 21. Hello From Bertha will begin streaming on August 22. For more information: www.twstl.org/something-spoken

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.