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.