News: NY Theater Company The Shelter Launches "Shelter in Place" Programming


Rochelle Newman-Carrasco performs in April's Monday Monologue Jam. Photo courtesy Spin Cycle.
Since 2009, The Shelter's free Shelter Sundays workshop has served as an artistic home to writers, directors, and actors who present new work to their community and find support, critique, and collaboration. Over the last decade, Shelter Artists, led by an all-volunteer staff, have created and staged over 100 world premieres. The company’s productions have been New York Times Critics Picks (Night of the Living and Lily & Kosmo Live), New Yorker Critics Picks (The Red Room), Backstage Editor’s Picks (Fairy Tale), and named Best of Fringe (This Is A Play About Artists). On March 15th, the company was set to begin its 11th year when a pandemic intervened. Lockdown orders in New York made it no longer possible to bring thirty or more theater artists together in one room.

An organization that long defined itself as not just a theater company but a community could not indefinitely postpone Shelter Sundays; it had to live up to its name and provide an artistic refuge for artists amidst an industry in free-fall. In less than two weeks, the leadership team forged Shelter in Place, three new programs to strengthen the artistic community in a time of great need:

THE LEAR PROJECT - Launched March 18th
A free online writing group to help writers create new plays over eight weeks, with group writing sessions, mutual feedback, and dramaturgical support. Named for the play Shakespeare reputedly wrote during a plague, the program was originally designed for only six writers. However, the demand was so great that the leadership team stepped up and quadrupled the program, creating four groups to serve a total of 24 writers. The Shelter also invited the larger community to join in with prompts and resources provided weekly via social media.

THE MONDAY MONOLOGUE JAM - Launched March 24th
Turning the limitations of social distancing into inspiration for new art, the Monday Monologue Jam pairs writers and actors to create video monologues. The Shelter presents these monologue anthologies in a show on Instagram TV (@TheShelterNYC) every other week. The newest Monologue Jam will be available to view beginning 7:30pm EDT on Monday, May 25. Previous episodes are available to watch on Shelter's Instagram and Facebook pages.

THE ZOOM WHERE IT HAPPENS - Launched March 29th
Shelter Sunday has gone virtual. Where once writers met in a room with actors to read and develop scripts, the workshop has relaunched as a Zoom conference to ensure that the Shelter can continue to develop exciting and important new work. Attendance has only increased from the in-person Sundays as artists from across the country (and even across the Atlantic) have joined to share their talent and gather in celebration of the healing power of theater.

You can visit The Shelter online for more information on all of these programs.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Immersive "American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams" Takes Audiences on a Marvelously Crafted Journey

Image
American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install
Read more

Review: Nancy Redman’s "A Séance with Mom" Conjures Mother-Daughter Hilarity and Love

Image
A Séance with Mom Written by Nancy Redman Directed by Austin Pendleton Presented at Chain Studio Theatre 312 W. 36th St., Manhattan, NYC April 20-23, 2023 [Update 5/1/23: shows added May 24-June 4, 2023 (no performance May 29)] Nancy Redman Nancy Redman appears onstage, a simple table in front of her, a walker off to the side. Within seconds, we are immersed in a séance involving two then three then four characters—all emerging from only Redman. Redman plays Nadine, a woman who has something urgent to address with her dead mother, Gussy. Redman manages multi-faceted character work, each character in conversation with the other, complete with different gestures, accents, and mannerisms. The effect is riveting and, ultimately, deeply cathartic. The heart of the show comprises Nadine’s mission to reach her mother through a séance in order to talk. An unwitting rabbi plays the bumbling gatekeeper to the spirits in the séance, while Nadine’s something—actually several somethings—to tell her
Read more

Review: From Child Pose to Stand(ing) Up: "Yoga with Jillian" and "Penguin in Your Ear" at the Women in Theatre Festival

Image
Yoga with Jillian Written by Lia Romeo Directed by Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance June 2-17, 2023 Penguin in Your Ear Written and performed by Eliza Bent Directed by Jess Barbagallo June 10, 2023 Part of the Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres Michole Biancosino. Photo courtesy of Project Y Theatre This June, Project Y Theatre Company presents the eighth annual installment of its Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), which showcases new work by women and maintains "more than 50% female representation of all artists involved." This year, the festival includes a lobby installation project, titled In the Betweens , from scenic designer Chen-Wei Liao, through which audience members pass on their way into the theater proper. One first chooses first between "light" and "dark" rooms and then moves into "the gardens" before re
Read more