Sunday, September 20, 2020

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of September 21, 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.

Arts For Life presents Diversity Is No Adversity, a Zoom webinar about diversity and inclusion in theatre, on Wednesday, September 23 at 7 pm. Panelists are Tiélere Cheatem, Michelle Dillard, Karen Fulks, Carmen García, Jon  Hey and Shane Signorino with AFL Board of Directors moderator Colin Dowd.  "With the goal of improving our performing arts community, we want to bring people together for a series spotlighting diversity and inclusion in theater.  Diversity Is No Adversity intends to establish a dialogue on systemic racism and how we can be inclusive and supportive as the nation addresses justice and equality. How did we get here? Where do we need to go? We will discuss these topics in three acts – a monthly program of webinars to take place via the Zoom platform in September, October and November." Attendees will be able to ask questions through the chat feature. Afterwards, the webinars will be available on the AFL You Tube Channel. The event is free and open to the public. To register and receive the link: us02web.zoom.us For more information: www.artsforlife.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."

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.

Ken Haller
The Blue Strawberry presents a return engagement of Ken Haller's The TV Show on Friday, September 25, at 8 pm. " We’ve all been spending a lot of time getting reacquainted with television this year. In “The TV Show” Ken Haller brings you songs and stories from and about TV." 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.

The Blue Strawberry presents The Soul of Ray Charles with Chuck Flowers on Saturday September 26, at 8 pm. "Chuck does right by Ray. Hear many of the greatest hits, and some of the deeper cuts." The show features Charles Creath on piano and Demarius Hicks on drums. 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 Lemp Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre presents Death of a Blackheart through November 7th. "Ahoy Matey! Join us for an exciting evening of murder, mystery and pirates at the best comedy dinner theater show in town. Don your favorite pirate gear and join us on a high seas adventure fraught with peril! What part will you play in this hilarious show full of fair maidens, lost boys, rival pirates and wenches? Whichever character you acquire, beware of that famous pirate Captain Jack Blackheart! Aye, he's a scurvy seadog if my eye ever seed one! Gee, I hope no one kills him off!" The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place in south city. For more information: www.lempmansion.com

Metro Theatre Company presents After Dark: A Virtual Gala on Thursday, September 24, from 7-8 pm. "Join emcees Jamie McKittrick and Alicia Revé Like for an exciting hour-long virtual celebration including appearances from past and present Metro Theater Company artists, some fun video surprises, a great silent auction, and highlights from our past, our present, and a major announcement connected to our new strategic plan. All proceeds will benefit our programming, including our in-school arts integration residencies, violence prevention program, and theatrical productions." For more information: https://www.metroplays.org/after-dark

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.

Come Together
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 Joe Hanrahan's Come Together, at the Shakespeare Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/STLShakesFest/videos

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

SATE, in collaboration with COCA and Prison Performing Arts, presents Project Verse: Creativity in the Time of Quarantine. Project Verse presents two new plays: Quatrains in Quarantine by e.k. doolin and Dream On, Black Girl: Reflections in Quarantine by Maxine du Maine. The performances are streamed free of charge on SATE’s website and Facebook page. For more information: slightlyoff.org.

Solid Lines Productions presents That's What She Said 2020, a virtual comedy showcase, on Thursday, September 24, at 8 pm via a live video stream. "That means double the entertainment is on the horizon on September 24th, 2020 at 8pm CST when a group of talented STL-based female performers will take to a virtual stage to showcase their humor-chops to the digital masses. From stand-up to burlesque to improv, music and everything in-between; the 1.5 hour event aims to challenge many of the preconceived notions about the status of the theatre industry in St. Louis in 2020." For more information: www.solidlinesproductions.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.  Mister Paradise will air on Thursday, September 24th, at 10 am and will then be available for streaming at the Classic 107.3 web site until October 2. For more information: www.twstl.org/something-spoken

Union Avenue Opera offers Sneak Peeks of its 2021 season operas Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and The Cradle Will Rock on its YouTube channel.

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.

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