urban excavations

This theatrical season will always have an asterisk. The COVID-19 pandemic closed down Broadway theaters as of March 12, 2020, with an uncertain re-opening date, and Off and Off Off Broadway theaters followed suit within days. Theater companies and theater-connected venues closed their doors completely for a time, some forever. Productions were initially cancelled, or postponed, or streamed on line for a time, testing the limits of Equity and other union rules that are undergoing adjustments in our digital age.

Primarily due to my Drama Desk obligations over the past decade as voter and member of the nominating committee, I have been privileged (and subsidized) to spend hundreds of nights and afternoons each season in theaters of all kinds. This is the tenth annual “what Martha has seen” marathon lists of theater and film adventuring (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). The 2019 calendar year rough tallies: 300 ticketed and staged theatrical productions, 20 or so cabaret performances or panel discussions (smaller scale adventures), and too few film screenings. The 2020 calendar year, which would have captured 1/2 of 2019-2020 and 1/2 of 2020-2021) represents a quite different story, written by a virus.

On March 12, 2020, I wrote to my fellow Drama Desk Awards nominators with a brief note of support and appreciation. We were reeling in the moment, and still imagining that the 2019-2020 New York theater shut down would be time-limited. Certainly, we thought, things would start up again soon. Wouldn’t they? No one knew.

“As we watch the season implode (or be extended, or both) — so quickly! — I just want to reach out and say how much I appreciate each and every one of you.

We’re a community of our own. Our role might be different this season. What will the 2019-2020 season be, after all is said and done? Will it extend into the summer? Who knows at this point.

Watching the cancellation notices come into my inbox and the news breaking in other locations has been wild and worrying. As I record the notes and delete shows from my calendar, it feels like the Rachel Maddow “poof” board as candidates each presidential election season leave the field. “Poof” there goes another show. And my heart hurts a bit for the folks.

Just a note to say I’m glad you all are on the journey this season with us. Stay safe, everyone.”

In the listing below of shows seen and events observed this riotously awful yet reflected calendar year of theater going and life considering, I’ve indicated in red text those shows booked as of March 11, the time of the shut down, through the end of the 2019-2020 season, that disappeared from my personal schedule over the course of just a few days. This is a typical routine for us during the final months of a season in the Before Times … booking a solid six weeks or so with individual publicists to fit in all we could before a final eligibility dates. This year, I keep these cancelled or postponed shows here as a record of the sudden disappearance of theater worlds on stage and experiences from theater seats lost for this season. I have hope for the return of many of these shows in red, but who knows?

The Drama Desk nominations were issued on time for our truncated 2019-2020 season (through March 11), on April 21, 2020. These nominations reflected 200-some shows rather than the expected 250 or so, given the shut down and loss of six weeks packed with shows. Throughout April and May 2020, nominee certificates were prepared, statues were ordered, press releases issued, and a virtual event developed. Plans continued for a virtual ceremony, as noted at the time on the Drama Desk Awards web site, “Due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, in lieu of a traditional ceremony, the 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced during a special presentation of Spectrum News NY1’s On Stage on Sunday, May 31, at 7:30 PM. The awards special also will stream on NY1.com, and DramaDeskAwards.com.”

In May 2020, further postponements and cancellations were announced including the Drama Desk Awards ceremony, respecting ongoing protests in New York and across the country sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of four police officers. The Drama Desk and Spectrum News NY1 opted to push the special back to an initially unspecified date, citing “breaking-news events in New York this weekend.”

Drama Desk co-presidents Charles Wright and David Barbour issued a statement on the postponement just a few hours before the ceremony was scheduled to stream.

“The Drama Desk celebrates all that’s outstanding in the work of New York’s diverse theater artists and craftspeople. We regret the postponement of our awards ceremony tonight, but as an organization committed to the principle that all voices must be heard, we stand together with our black colleagues against the racial injustice and violence in our nation and city. We are grateful to Spectrum News NY1 for its comprehensive news coverage of this painful moment.”

The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards were finally aired on Saturday, June 13th, at 7:30pm ET on Spectrum News NY1 and streamed on DramaDeskAwards.com.

Cancellations continued. The Public Theater late on May 31, 2020 cancelled their June 1, 2020 virtual gala, another message of solidarity and of priorities. “In this time of national trauma, when the COVID crisis has so disproportionately impacted the Black community, when the injustices of our way of life have been made so clear, it just feels wrong for us to sail ahead with our event. We deeply believe in our theater, and in the importance of the work we do, but this is not the moment to focus on the Public. This is a time for mourning and reflection…. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor have demonstrated in horrific fashion the racism upon which our country was built. We mourn the loss of these Black men and women, and are grieved and outraged by their deaths. The Public was founded as a theater by, for and of the people, yet it has taken us far too long to proclaim the simple truth: Black Lives Matter. We must stand in solidarity with Black artists, Black staff members, and the Black community.”

The shape of some events morphed. In July 2020, the Kilroys, an advocacy group promoting the work of women, trans and non-binary writers, shifted the focus of their annual lists of recommended un- and under-produced plays by those writers. As many of us who attend and write about theater mourned dark performance spaces, this organization shifted its advocacy in 2020 to capture the moment, to document plays whose planned productions were curtailed or cancelled altogether. This 2020 list was, in the words of the press release announcing it on July 7, 2020, “a response to the call that watched as dozens of underrepresented writers were being silenced through no fault of their own.”

On August 21 the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing announced that the 74th annual Tony Awards ceremony would be held digitally in Fall 2020. Their eligibility rules resulted in a different time line and a different set of eligible shows: productions had to have opened on or before February 19, 2020 for these COVID year awards. Shows that opened after February 19 through the March 12 shut down date were deemed not eligible for Tony consideration. As of December 31, 2020, however, the awards have not yet been scheduled.

And in the months after too many killings of Black and brown bodies, and problematic and arguably criminal police response, an array of organizations have emerged that outline issues of equity and opportunity, and outline demands and possible ways forward for theater as a field, and Broadway theater as an area of practice. Many groups advocating for change, articles written, long-term frustrations and abuses publicized. The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas began a project called Dramaturging the Phoenix in which the visions of dramaturgs and other theater makers are being collected to capture a moment in time, and to envision a future for theater and the professionals who collaborate to create it.

At the end of most calendar years, I total up numbers of live productions seen and articles written. This year, that kind of accounting seems almost immoral, certainly beside the point. There were a number of such productions January 1 through March 11 — our Before Times. And then we began to screen and Zoom and convene in multitudinous manners in front of our screens at home. By November and December of this excruciating calendar year, my attendance at even zoom readings fell off as I turned my attention to working with others on rebuilding the website of the American Theatre Critics Association, and co-planning the organization’s first virtual three day conference. What I count personally among my theatrical “events” relates to what the awards organizations are considering anew, and what we now muse about what can be seen as theater and storytelling. Which medium works better than another? What new art forms are being created?

Kilroys . Dramaturgs. Visions of  futures. Re-calibrating organizational missions. Ripping things down and starting over again. Organizations stopped in their tracks by virus-compelled shutdowns. And more visioning. I select no “best of” for any months of this transitional annum, much less for the entire year. 2021 cannot come soon enough, and the work we need to do to reclaim our society and reconceive our art forms.

January

• (1/8) Maz and Bricks (Fishamble | 59E59)
• (1/9) Miss America’s Ugly Daughter: Bess Myerson & Me (The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater)
• (1/10) Love Actually? The Unauthorized Musical Parody (Theater Center)
• (1/11) My Name is Lucy Barton (MTC | Friedman)
• (1/12) Boom (59E59)
• (1/14) Mac Beth (Hunter Theater Project | Frederick Loewe Theater)
• (1/15) A Soldier’s Play (Roundabout | American Airlines)
• (1/17) Paradise Lost (Theatre Row)
• (1/18) Timon of Athens (Theatre for a New Audience)
• (1/18) Emojiland The Musical (Arborhouse Productions & Visceral Entertainment | The Duke on 42nd Street)
• (1/19) Paris (Atlantic Theater Company | Stage 2)
• (1/19) The Woman in Black (McKittrick Hotel)
• (1/20) 17 Minutes (Barrow Group)
• (1/21) Grand Horizons (Second Stage | Hayes)
• (1/22) Romeo & Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona & Brooklyn (A.R.T./New York Theatres)
• (1/24) The Confession of Lily Dare (Primary Stages | Cherry Lane Theatre)
• (1/24-1/25) BroadwayCon panels on criticism, playwriting, diversity on stage (New York Hilton Midtown)
• (1/28) We Are Still Tornadoes (reading, Ripley-Grier)
• (1/29) Stew (Walkerspace)
• (1/30) Harold Prince Birthday Party, Sing Along Show and Tell (Bruno Walter Auditorium, NYPL-PA)
• (1/30) Beyond Babel (The Gym at Judson)
• (1/31) Medea (BAM | Harvey)

February

• (2/1) Border People (Working Theatre | A.R.T./New York Theatres)
• (2/2) Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (The New Group | Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (2/4) Ashley Blaker: Goy Friendly (Soho Playhouse)
• (2/6) Chekhov/Tolstoy Love Stories (Mint | Theater Row)
• (2/7) Darling Grenadine (Roundabout Underground)
• (2/8) Where We Stand (WP Theater)
• (2/9) A Peregrine Falls (Wild Project)
• (2/11) Frankenstein (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/12) The Sabbath Girl (59E59)
• (2/13) Dracula (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/14) Blues for an Alabama Sky (Keen Company | Theater Row)
• (2/15) Hamlet (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (2/15) Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Stage Company
• (2/16) Lady G: Plays and Whisperings of Lady Gregory (Irish Rep)
• (2/17) A Musical About Star Wars (St Lukes Theatre)
• (2/19) Dana H. (Vineyard)
• (2/20) Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb | Connelly Theater)
• (2/21) Incantata (Irish Rep)
• (2/22) All the Natalie Portmans (MCC)
• (2/22) Rules of Desire (Playroom Theatre)
• (2/23) The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Transport Group | Abrons Art Center)
• (2/25) A Sign of the Times (Theatre 511)
• (2/26) West Side Story (Broadway)
• (2/27) We’re Gonna Die (Second Stage | Tony Kiser)
• (2/29) Girl from the North Country (Belasco)
• (2/29) Mirrors (New York Theatre Workshop | Next Door)

March

• (3/1) Happy Birthday Doug (Soho Playhouse)
• (3/2) About Love (Sheen Center)
• (3/3) Yale Drama Series: How To Defend Yourself (Tow Theater)
• (3/4) Cambodian Rock Band (Signature)
• (3/4) Coal Country (Public)
• (3/5) Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons)
• (3/6) Pulp Verite (reading, A.R.T./New York)
• (3/6) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Repertorio Espanol)
• (3/7) 72 Miles To Go (Roundabout Theatre | Laura Pels)
• (3/7) Endlings (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (3/8) The Perplexed (MTC | New York City Center)
• (3/10) Women’s Day on Broadway (New Amsterdam)
• (3/10) Blood (reading, Cherry Lane)
• (3/10) Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi | A.R.T./New York)
• (3/11) Six (Brooks Atkinson)

• (3/12) Paper Dream (reading, Cherry Lane)
• (3/12) The Hot Wing King (Signature)
• (3/13) Bundle of Sticks (Intar)
• (3/14) The Minutes (Cort)
• (3/14) The Siblings Play (Rattlestick Playwrights)
• (3/15) Sideways (Theater at St Clements)
• (3/17) Water in my Hands (reading, Cherry Lane)
• (3/17) Gnit (Theatre for a New Audience, Brooklyn)
• (3/18) Hangmen (Golden)
• (3/18) Tina (Lunt-Fontanne)
• (3/19) Company (Jacobs)
• (3/20) Sanctuary City (Lucille Lortel)
• (3/21) The Antelope Party (Wild Project)
• (3/22) Intimate Apparel a new opera (LCT | Mitzi Newhouse)
• (3/22) Rosie O’Donnell “from home edition” of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” (livestream, Actors Fund benefit)
• (3/23) The Fre (Flea)
• (3/23) The Siblings Play (Rattlestick Playwrights, view-at-home via vimeo)
• (3/25) Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova | Greenwich House)
• (3/26) Albermarle (reading, New Dramatists)
• (3/26) I Am Nobody (The Tank)
• (3/27) Esai’s Table (Cherry Lane)
• (3/29) Approval Junkie (Audible | Minetta Lane)
• (3/30) Help (The Shed)
• (3/31) All Fall Down (reading, Cherry Lane)

April

• (4/1) Mrs. Doubtfire (Stephen Sondheim)
• (4/2) Caroline or Change (Roundabout | Studio 54)
• (4/3) The Vagrant Trilogy (Public)
• (4/6) Fatty Arbuckle: Scandal and Achievement (Harvardwood | the Lambs)
• (4/7) Lungs (BAM Strong)
• (4/9) The Visitor (Public)
• (4/10) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Booth)
• (4/10) Lauren Van Hemert’s RDU on Stage (guest, zoom, podcast)
• (4/11) Flying Over Sunset (LCT | Vivian Beaumont)
• (4/12) American Buffalo (Circle in the Square)
• (4/13) Trevor (Stage 42)
• (4/14) Assassins (Classic Stage Company)
• (4/15) Plaza Suite (Hudson)
• (4/16) How I Learned to Drive (Friedman)
• (4/17) Birthday Candles (Roundabout | American Airlines)
• (4/18) Sing Street (Lyceum)
• (4/18) Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons)
• (4/19) Take Me Out (Hayes)

• (4/21) Drama Desk Nominations (truncated season, announced on StarsInTheHouse)
• (4/23) The Sleeping World (reading, zoom)
• (4/26) Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration (Broadway.com)
• (4/27) Cry Havoc with Elizabeth Marvel (Red Bull Theater RemarkaBull Podversation)
• (4/28) Virtual Salon: Domestic Violence During COVID-19 (Rattlestick, zoom)
• (4/29) What Do We Need To Talk About? (Rhinebeck Panorama, Public Theater youtube + web site)
• (4/30) We’re Gonna Die: Diep Tran + Young Jean Lee (PlayClub by PlayCo, zoom)
• (4/30) Words & Pictures: Sally Mann on Dorothea Lange (Virtual View Q&A with MoMA curator Sarah Meister and photographer Sally Mann)

May

• (5/3) Longer (Zoom screening of new short film by Susana Darwin)
• (5/7) Antony & Cleopatra (National Theatre at Home)
• (5/15) The Way of Water (Play-PerView via Zoom)
• (5/17) SMASH cast reunion (StarsInTheHouse)
• (5/18) NYTW Mondays @ 3: Elizabeth Marvel (Marvel at the Classics)
• (5/19) The Kilroys Vol. Two Book Drop (zoom webinar)
• (5/20) NYTW Workshop Wednesday: Claire Warden and Teniece Divya Johnson (intimacy direction)
• (5/20) Bombshell in Concert (StarsInTheHouse)
• (5/21) Pipeline (Lincoln Center, BroadwayHD)
• (5/21) A Streetcar Named Desire (National Theatre at Home)
• (5/22) Eureka Day (play-per-view Colt Coeur and No Kid Hungry NY)
• (5/24) Our Lady of 121st Street (LAByrinth website)
• (5/26) National New Play Network session “We’ve Been Here Before: Theater & Crisis (zoom webinar)
• (5/27) Albemarle (Lark Artists, Caridad Svich Roundtable reading)

June

• (6/1) We Are One Public (Public gala online) [POSTPONED]
• (6/3) Lena: A Moment with the Lady (All Arts, youtube)
• (6/5) Town Hall (reading, Royal Holloway, University of London, youtube)
• (6/9) Virtual Salon: The Complexity of Creating Right Now (Rattlestick At Home, zoom)
• (6/9) The Real Judy Garland Webinar (Will Friedwald, zoom)
• (6/9) Clip Joint Livestream: Judy Garland Encores (Will Friedwald, zoom)
• (6/10) JASA + Broadway Mixtape Present Judy Garland Sings Harold Arlen (Will Friedwald zoom meeting)
• (6/10) Why We Do It: Donja R. Love & John-Martin Green in Conversation (New Group, Facebook)
• (6/10) one in two (Pride Plays Festival, Playbill.com/PridePlays)
• (6/11) NYT Offstage Opening Night (New York Times streamed event)
• (6/12) The Book of Magdalene (zoom meeting play reading)
• (6/13) APSS & Will Friedwald: Singer-Pianists & Piano Singers (zoom meeting)
• (6/13) Drama Desk Awards Ceremony, rescheduled from 5/31/20. (NY!.com and DramaDeskAwards.com)
• (6/14) O’Neill 2020: Artistic Director Sunday Series (Wendy Goldberg)
• (6/17) At Home with Rebecca Luker (zoom event)
• (6/19-6/20) Crossing Borders III (LMDA virtual conference)
• (6/22) RemarkaBULL Podversations: I’ll Drown My Book Kate Burton (redbull.com)
• (6/23) Brutal Imagination (Vineyard 2002 production re-staged online, youtube)
• (6/23) Small Island (National Theatre at Home, 18-25 June 2020)
• (6/24) The Clip Joint: Lena Horne on screen and on stage (Will Friedwald zoom)
• (6/25) The Clip Joint: Lena Horne on television (Will Friedwald zoom)
• (6/25) Apocalypse Now (as part of film+stage+book group reading Heart of Darkness + Apocalypse Now + responses to the novel)
• (6/26) Zoom Book Group: The Heart of Darkness + Apocalypse Now
• (6/26) The Men From the Boys (Pride Plays Festival, Playbill.com/PridePlays)
• (6/28) O’Neill 2020: Artistic Director Sunday Series with Alexander Gemignani (zoom)
• (6/29) Black Women in Theatre Appreciation Day (zoom, youtube)

July

• (7/1) And So We Come Forth: The Apple Family: A Dinner on Zoom (Apple Family Productions, zoom)
• (7/2) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge Theatre + National Theatre at Home, youtube)
• (7/3) Hamilton (June 2016 #HamilFilm with original cast, Disney+) (#1)
• (7/4) Les Blancs (2016 production, National Theatre at Home, youtube)
• (7/4) Lungs: In Camera (Old Vic stream, youtube)
• (7/4) Justin Sayre Makes The Case for America – Joe’s Pub Live! From the Archives (youtube)
• (7/5) Hamilton (June 2016 #HamilFilm with original cast, Disney+) (#2)
• (7/5) O’Neill 2020: Artistic Director Sunday Series with Chris Jones (zoom)
• (7/6) Live Panel Show! (and Tell): BIG: The Musical (York Theater Company, zoom)
• (7/7) ‘Mary Pickford: The World’s First Major Movie Star’ Webinar (New York Adventure Club, zoom)
• (7/8) Will Friedwald CLIP JOINT: The Broadway Mix Tape The King and I (zoom)
• (7/8) The Line (Public, youtube)
• (7/9) OLYMPIA Live Film Streaming Event
• (7/10-7/12) Virtual Writers Weekend (Mark Twain House, Crowdcast)
• (7/14) Inside New York Magazine: Making a Magazine in Extraordinary Times (David Haskell, Zak Cheney-Rice, Jody Quon, Genevieve Smith, zoom)
• (7/14) The Kilroys List 2020 Celebration (virtual toast and celebration)
• (7/14) 8th Annual Night of a Thousand Judys (streamed, benefit for The Ali Forney Center)
• (7/15) 65th Obie Awards (recorded, online, original “broadcast” 7/14/20))
• (7/15) Arts to Re-imagine the System (Center for Court Innovation, zoom)
• (7/15) Kaye Ballard – The Show Goes On! World Premiere Screening Event with Special Surprises (kayeballardmovie.com, Facebook screening)
• (7/17) Zoom Book Group: Shirley (2020) + “The Lottery” + biography + Tracy Letts “The Minutes”
• (7/18) Amadeus (2018 production, National Theatre at Home, youtube)
• (7/18) The True (The New Group Off Stage, reunion reading 7/16/20, streamed)
• (7/18) Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons, play-per-view)
• (7/19) The Homebound Project IV: Promise (Rattlestick + No Kid Hungry)
• (7/20) Red Bull Theater 10th Anniversary Short New Play Festival (youtube)
• (7/21) 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues (new edition) (youtube)
• (7/23) Reunion: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (2013 revival) (youtube)
• (7/23) AT Virtual Book Club: Greater Clements (Facebook Live | Zoom)
• (7/23) Zoom Book Group: Shirley Jackson (The Lottery + film “Shirley”) + Tracy Letts (The Minutes)
• (7/24) Inside the Ensemble [ATC]: Mary Beth Peil & Peter Maloney (zoom)
• (7/24) R&H and Playbill viewing party: Cinderella (1957 original) (youtube) [feed damaged, watched DVD instead]
• (7/25) The Persians (Epidaurus, Greece, stream)
• (7/25) The Weir (Irish Repertory Theatre, stream)
• (7/25) The Smoking Car (Metropolitan Playhouse, stream)
• (7/26) A Chorus Line Reunion | Stars in the House (live recording 7/25/20, stream)
• (7/26) A Chorus Line Reunion on Backstage Lie with Richie Ridge (Broadway World, stream)
• (7/26) Is God Is (Wilma Theater, Philadelphia, stream)
• (7/27) A Conversation with Mary L. Trump | Washington Post Live (stream)
• (7/27) Live Panel Show! (and Tell): LOST IN THE STARS: The Musical (York Theater Company, zoom)
• (7/28) Livestreaming SEGAL TALKS: Morgan Jenness (HowlRound stream)
• (7/28) Awards Ceremony: the Dramatists Guild, the Dramatists Guild Foundation, and The Lillys (stream)
• (7/28) Inside New York Magazine: Our Summer Without Blockbusters (Neil Janowitz, Katy Brooks, Hunter Harris, Alison Willmore, zoom)
• (7/29) While We Breathe: A Night of Creative Protest (youtube)
• (7/30) Theater of War for Frontline Medical Providers (zoom)
• (7/31) The Secret Life of Ophelia (Greenwich Theatre youtube)
• (7/31) Creator’s Cut [ATC]: The Secret Life of Bees (zoom)
• (7/31) The Kindness of Strangers: Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival (stream)

August

• (8/2) O’Neill 2020: Artistic Director Sunday Series with John McDaniel (zoom)
• (8/3) O’Neill 2020: An Evening with John McDaniel & Brad Simmons (zoom)
• (8/5) The Play in Previews with Mfoniso Udofia (New York Theatre Workshop, zoom)
• (8/5) O’Neill 2020: CAB Happy Hour Tracy Stark (zoom)
• (8/5) The Con (streaming premiere)
• (8/6) American Theatre Wing network “The Network – Not Going Back to Normal – Moving Forward” (zoom meeting)
• (8/7) Howard (documentary on Howard Ashman, premiere on Disney+)
• (8/7) Composer’s Corner: Jeanine Tesori (zoom)
• (8/8) The Homebound Project V: Homemade (vimeo streams 8/5-8/9)
• (8/11) Rattlestick Virtual Salon: Spotlight on Critics of Color (zoom)
• (8/12) TDF + Fane Online: Armistead Maupin and Ian McKellan (stream)
• (8/12) New York Adventure Club “Pennsylvania Station: The Most Beautiful; Station Ever Built” (webinar)
• (8/13) Rattlestick at Home: In The Southern Breeze (zoom)
• (8/13) Offstage: Suffragist (New York Times event, zoom)
• (8/14) Writers Reflect: Eboni Booth & Joshua Harmon (Atlantic Theater Company, zoom)
• (8/15) Provincetown American Playwright Award presentation (streamed)
• (8/18) Finish the Fight: The Story Behind the Story (zoom)
• (8/19) Zoom Book Group: Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr. Ripley (novel and film) + The Price of Salt (novel and “Carol” film)
• (8/21) Hearing Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs: Examining the Finances and Operations of the USPS during COVID-19 and Upcoming Elections (stream)
• (8/21) Inside the Ensemble: Giancarlo Esposito (zoom)
• (8/23) Anne Enright with Vicky Featherstone: Mothers and Daughters (Edinburgh International Book Festival, stream)
• (8/24) Hearing House Committee on Oversight and Reform: Protecting the Timely Delivery of Mail, Medicine, and Mail-In Ballots (stream)
• (8/25) A Marvelous Night at the Apollo (premiered 8/4/20, streamed on Apollo’s digital Stage)
• (8/26) The Rest I Make Up (documentary, stream, Cuban Cultural Center of New York)
• (8/26) Women in Theatre: A Centennial Celebration (playbill streaming)
• (8/27) The Gifts You Gave to the Dark (Irish Repertory Theatre, streaming on demand)
• (8/27) American Masters: Eugene O’Neill A Glory of Ghosts (1986) (part I, youtube)
• (8/27) TFANA Talk: The Skin of Our Teeth (TFANA zoom)
• (8/28) American Masters: Eugene O’Neill A Glory of Ghosts (1986) (part II, youtube)
• (8/28) Creators’ Cut: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (zoom)
• (8/31) Sophocles in Staten Island (Ma-Yi Studios, stream)
• (8/31) Inside the Ensemble: Isiah Whitlock (zoom)
• (8/31) SOLDIERGIRLS (Rattlestick, benefit concert for SPART*A, zoom)

September

• (9/1) Cucú and Her Fishes (New Museum, stream)
• (9/1) Power the Polls: Virtual Townhall
• (9/3) The Oedipus Project UK (Theater of War productions, zoom)
• (9/3) Clara Thomas Bailey (reading, zoom)
• (9/5) Eleanor (Barrington Stage, stream)
• (9/9) Evening In: A Subway Ride from Past to Present (MOMA zoom)
• (9/10) Incidental Moments of the Day: The Apple Family: Life Zoom (Apple Family Productions, zoom)
• (9/12) Coastal Elites (HBO)
• (9/16) Filipino Theater in the United States: The Movement and its makers (ATCA EDI committee seminar, zoom)
• (9/17) Bulrusher (Bard at the Gate, youtube stream)
• (9/18) Jack Was Kind (All For One Theater, zoom)
• (9/19) Sugar in Our Wounds (Play-Per-View live stream reading)
• (9/20) 72 Annual Emmy Awards
• (9/23) Belfast Blues (Irish Rep, digital event)
• (9/24) Honoring and Remembering Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Harvard Law School event, zoom)
• (9/25) Karen, I Said (New Georges, Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, zoom)
• (9/26) A Woman’s Honor (Metropolitan Playhouse, virtual reading)
• (9/29) Hedda Gabler (Bedlam benefit reading)
• (9/29) Zoom Book Group: Eleanor Roosevelt + Lorena Hickok (“White Houses” + “Eleanor and Hick” + play “Eleanor”)

October

• (10/4) 20th Annual Monte Cristo Award to Preston Whiteway (zoom)
• (10/8) Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? (Harvard, zoom)
• (10/10) Coastal Disturbances (Stars in the House, reunion reading)
• (10/14) Covering Art in the Time of COVID (CUNY Journalism panel, zoom)
• (10/14) Henry Hewes Design Awards ceremony (zoom)
• (10/18) Why Would I Dare: The Trial of Crystal Mason (Rattlestick, youtube stream)
• (10/18) Circle Jerk (Fake Friends, vimeo stream)
• (10/19) 1st Virtual Cabaret Convention: NY Cabaret Yesterday & Today (stream)
• (10/20) Forward. Together. (Public Theater virtual gala)
• (10/21) A Conversation with Heidi Schreck (via youtube)
• (10/22) Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy (TheaterWorks Hartford and TheatreSquared and The Civilians, zoom stream)
• (10/23) Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Jeremy O. Harris presents, live stream)
• (10/24) Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company reunion reading, stream)
• (10/27) A Little Harmless Fun: Christopher Byrne (Mark Twain House Crowdcast conversation series)
• (10/28) It Can’t Happen Here (nine theater companies, 60 actors, NYTF, stream)
• (10/28) At This Theatre: Ghostlight Tour (playbill selects, stream)
• (10/29) Vineyard Lessons in Survival, episodes 1-4 (Vineyard. vimeo, stream)
• (10/30) Vineyard Lessons in Survival, episodes 5-7 (Vineyard, vimeo, stream)
• (10/31) Aunt Dan and Lemon (The New Group, reunion reading, stream)
• (10/31) Julius Caesar (Donmar Kings Cross via St. Anns Warehouse, stream)
• (10/31) Macbeth: A Surround Sound Experiment (Knock At The Gate, benefit reading)

November

• (11/1) Sovereignty (Theatre for a New Audience, stream)
• (11/1) November (The Shed public broadcast, stream)
• (11/2) Public Forum: We The People (stream)
• (11/3) Poll Worker in Manhattan (best and longest day all yar)
• (11/6) Guards at the Taj (Atlantic Theater Company, stream)
• (11/10) Toni Stone (Roundabout reunion reading, stream
• (11/13-15) ATCA 2020: The Next Normal (first completely digital conference of the American Theatre Critics Association)
• (11/24) At This Theatre: Broadway Ruins (playbill selects, stream)

December

• (12/3) Time Stands Still (Broadway cast revival reading, zoom)
• (12/3) Old Friends | New Works (MTC benefit performance, zoom)
• (12/7) Judith Light with Leigh Silverman (New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, eventbrite stream)
• (12/9) Trans Issues in Theater: More Than Just Pronouns (ATCA EDI committee seminar series, zoom)
• (12/10) Curators from the Couch: Stettheimer Dollhouse Up Close (Museum of the City of New York, youtube)
• (12/10) In Conversation: David Adjmi and Adam Greenfield with Marin Ireland (Playwrights Horizons, zoom)
• (12/11) Barbeque (Public Theater reunion cast reading, zoom)
• (12/31) Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (TBD Pictures, onthestage.tv stream)

© Martha Wade Steketee (December 31, 2020)