12 Stage Performances to Watch Today, August 17
Manual Cinema: Frankenstein
At 1 p.m. ET, here’s a dazzling treat: Throughout August, the multimedia theatre collective Manual Cinema, which combines shadow puppetry and filmic elements, is sharing recordings of one eye-popping show each week. This week’s show is Frankenstein, which stitches together Mary Shelley’s memoir with her classic monster tale. Watch for free until Monday, August 24 at 1 p.m. ET on the company’s website.
Food for Thought Productions: Kristine Nielsen and Nathan Darrow
At 2 p.m. ET, Food for Thought Productions presents a live in-person reading of two shorts at Theatre 80 in the East Village, but you can also watch online. Delphi Harrington headlines Christopher Durang’s Mrs. Sorken, about a middle-aged suburban matron attempting to give a lecture on the meaning of theatre without her notes. Two-time Tony nominee Kristine Nielsen and Nathan Darrow star in Tennessee Williams’ I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow, an experimental, almost Beckettian piece about two old friends playing cards as they wait for the inevitable. The performance takes place on the free app Zoom, which you’ll need to download in advance. Tickets are available from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.
New York Theatre Barn: A Quarantine Lab
At 7 p.m. ET, for the past 13 years, New York Theatre Barn has showcased works in progress in its New Works Series. That initiative has now gone virtual, with 40-minute peeks at two new projects a week. Tonight, catch movement-centric excerpts from a pair of pieces created by two choreographer-director-performers during lockdown: Raja Feather Kelly‘s Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, a musical about a multiethnic women struggling with her identity; and Tislarm Bouie‘s short film Thug, a meditation on being a Black man in America. Watch for free on New York Theatre Barn’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca
At 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Tosca, Puccini’s thrilling love triangle starring Patricia Racette as the title singer, Roberto Alagna as her artist lover and George Gagnidze as the chief of police who wants Tosca for himself. Riccardo Frizza conducts this 2013 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Luisa Miller, until 6:30 p.m. today.
Stars in the House: Andréa Burns
At 8 p.m. ET, On Your Feet! diva Andréa Burns guest hosts Stars in the House and she’s bringing a longtime friend with her: Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winning music director and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire, who worked on Hamilton and In the Heights. We expect some LMM tea! Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Available to Watch All Day
Metropolitan Opera Stars Live in Concert: Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak
On Sunday, the Metropolitan Opera presented husband-and-wife duo Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak in a live recital, and you can watch a recording through Friday, August 28. The opera stars performed duets and solos from Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, Cavalleria Rusticana, The Merry Widow and other classics, accompanied by a string quintet on an outdoor terrace in Èze, France. Tickets are $20.
Play-PerView: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Play-PerView presented a live reading of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity on Saturday and you can watch a recording through Thursday. Kristoffer Diaz‘s 2010 play centers on a middle-rank pro wrestler whose chance to become a star involves exploiting cultural stereotypes. The insightful dramedy was a hit for Second Stage Theater a decade ago, where it won Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for best new play, and this event reunites four members from that production, Usman Ally, Terence Archie, Desmin Borges and Christian Litke, with new addition Justin Kirk. Tickets are $15 and benefit New Dramatists.
—
Top image: Kristine Nielsen.
RAVEN SNOOK