Interlude - August 6
August 6, 2020
We earnestly invite you to enjoy these events and virtual offerings
Welcome back to Interlude, your twice-weekly portal to all sorts of fun, enriching and educational material, available free online from local, national and global artists and presenters.
Get Wilde with the Palladium Players
It’s time for Round 2 of the Center’s table reading series, Palladium Players, your chance to see new faces – either online or safely distanced, as you prefer – while reading and discussing some the best literature ever written for the stage. The next reading at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, will tackle Act III of The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s celebrated satire of Victorian social hypocrisy.
Experienced actors and amateurs alike are invited to apply now for one of the eight speaking roles. For the reading, participants have the option of gathering online via Zoom or in person – with safety measures in place – at the Studio Theater. Learn more here.
Students can talk with award-winning sound designer
Launching soon is a new season of the Center’s KAR Front Seat program, which invites students with interests in the performing arts to talk with successful performers and production professionals about the influences and experiences that have shaped their careers. Currently, these sessions are conducted live through Zoom, enabling students to participate and ask questions from the safety of home.
Program Sponsor
The opening event at 7 p.m. Aug. 24 features Cricket S. Myers, a Los Angeles-based sound designer who has worked with theaters across the country and earned a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination (the first in sound design for a woman) for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo on Broadway. She also has received 23 Ovation Award nominations.
Interested students and teachers should visit this page for more information and register now! The conversation is limited to 10 students, but anyone can sign up as an observer and pose written questions in the Zoom chat. The sessions also will stream live on the Center’s Facebook page.
Michael Feinstein and Janis Siegel sing the Songbook
A highlight of the recent Songbook Academy Final Showcases was a virtual duet between Great American Songbook Foundation Founder Michael Feinstein and The Manhattan Transfer’s Janis Siegel, one of the celebrity guest mentors for this year’s Songbook Academy Online. They teamed up on the classic “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach.
You can watch it here, and keep in mind that all five of the hour-long showcases are now available for viewing on YouTube. Enjoy!
A trip down the rabbit hole
Here’s a thing that people seem to like, even if they don’t generally like this sort of thing.
Commissioned by London’s Royal Ballet and created by the hip-hop dance theater company ZooNation, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party enjoyed a sold-out run in 2014 at the Royal Opera House and returned in 2016 at the historic Roundhouse. The production explores perceptions about mental health by transporting Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts and other loopy characters to the Institute for Extremely Normal Behaviour, where a young psychotherapist begins to question the meaning of “normal.”
A recorded performance is available free on YouTube through Aug. 14, and here are a couple actual comments from viewers:
- “Usually I find the recordings of theatre hard to get immersed in but this was absolutely sensational. Wow wow wow … ”
- “The choreography, storyline, and out of this world dancing and singing talent just blew me away! I laughed, I cried, I danced along!”
Watch it on the Royal Opera House YouTube channel.
