Women’s and LGBT choruses have used communal singing to network in support of social causes. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose major challenges for arts and culture involving the prohibition of large, in-person gatherings. However, these choruses are not just surviving, but thriving—thanks to their savvy use of digital networks and webs of long-standing relationships.
Tag: Theatre and Performance Art
What the One-Woman Show ‘Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal’ Taught Me About Self-Worth
Actor Melissa Center wrote and stars in “Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal,” a one-woman show in which she sings, dances, embodies a complex constellation of characters, and reveals the extent to which girls and women are socialized and pressured into being in and maintaining relationships at all cost to themselves.
Felicia Young’s Earth Celebrations: Using Art to Address Climate Change
Felicia Young, founder of Earth Celebrations, is passionate about using the arts—dance, music, theater and an array of visual mediums—to help New York City residents address escalating climate change and demand government action in support of sustainable development.
Larger than Life: Musical Theater, Body Positivity and Advocacy
A personal piece about the overlap of the body positivity movement, anti-racist activism, and musical theater:
“For theater kids, performing a title character twice before college is a dream come true. To me, as the person standing center stage, it was also a nightmare.”
“She Is Risen” Albums Brings Feminist Voices to “Jesus Christ Superstar”
The concept album started with a dream. Singer, songwriter, and Broadway actor Morgan James dreamed that she performed “Jesus Christ Superstar.” In her dream, she was Jesus and Shoshana Bean was Judas. She told her friends about the dream, and they encouraged her to make her idea of an all-women production a reality. What Morgan says started out as a lark became the (so far) two-volume “She Is Risen.”
The Lost Season: COVID-19’s Impact on Underrepresented Playwrights
Donnetta Grays is just one of many playwrights whose productions were cut short this year due to COVID-19—since the spring season is generally when theaters “take more risks” in producing shows outside of the traditional canon. So the pandemic, unsurprisingly, is disproportionately affecting playwrights who produce such “radical” work—namely, Black, queer and marginalized writers.
The Kilroys’ LIST aims to memorialize those productions.
LISTEN: “Photograph 51” Introduces Us to the Oft-Overlooked Mother of DNA
London, 1953. Scientists are on the verge of discovering what they call the secret of life: the DNA double helix. Providing the key is driven young physicist Rosalind Franklin. But if the double helix was the breakthrough of the 20th century, then what kept Franklin out of the history books? A play about ambition, isolation and the race for greatness. Listen to the audio play here!
LISTEN: Audio Drama “SEVEN” Tells the Story of Remarkable Women
A riveting piece of documentary theater, SEVEN tells the true stories of seven women who bravely fought for the well-being of women, families and children around the globe. Listen to the entire play here!
The Ms. Q&A: Susan Loewenberg on Feminism in the Theater
In the midst of a global pandemic, the entertainment industries have come to a standstill. Theater, a traditionally live experience, is especially facing challenges. But lifelong feminist and theater producer Susan Loewenberg of L.A. Theatre Works finds her organization in a unique position.
Rest in Power: Julia Miles, Pioneer Advocate for Women Directors and Playwrights
On March 18, the founder of the WP Theater—formerly known as The Women’s Project—Julia Miles passed away after a long life of mentoring and producing work in the theatre industry for and by women.