PRIMARY PLUS: CREATING A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY
We all need to stay connected– especially now. Primary Stages and the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) are committed to creating community even as we are socially distant and grapple with the new normal. Whether you’re new to us or have been around since the beginning, know that you have a home at Primary Stages and ESPA. Our in-person interactions need to be limited, but we won't let anyone be isolated.
Check out our programs aimed at helping our community connect with us and each other. Click the links to join us virtually and check back here (and on social media!) often for updates and additional programming.
Many of our esteemed Primary Stages family of artists have graciously volunteered their time to host FREE Virtual Master Classes. These videos are brief interviews of different artists talking about their life and career, advice to artists, and answering some "questions from the audience" submitted in advance and answered by the artist. We hope that these conversations can be a source of comforting free content to keep you engaged and inspire your art. Master Class participants include Theresa Rebeck, Kate Hamill, Jason O'Connell, Mary Bacon, Thom Sesma, Jennifer Mudge, Chris Coffey, Kimberly Senior, Sharon Washington, and more to be announced. CLICK HERE to view our Master Class Video Series, kicked off first by Mary Bacon!
For all of the playwrights, aspiring writers, and those brand-new to the craft - if you’re seeking community and connection, we want you to have lunch with us...online! Tune in twice a week for lunch-and-learn meetings led by playwrights including Adam Gwon, Daniel Talbott, Kate Moira Ryan, Erin Daley, and more to be announced. The playwright will host a FREE hour-long writing workshop with prompts to get your ideas on the page so you can connect while creating new material and keep your skills sharp. After the workshop, stay online with each other via our platform to eat your lunch together virtually and chat about what you’ve written!
On the platform Zoom, thanks to the generous support of The Howard Gilman Foundation, we can host up to 500 guests on a community video meet-up. We will be using this for many company needs, including meetings while our administrative staff works from home, meetups for the Primary Stages Writer’s Group, and a Digital Reading Series from our company-in-residence, the Latinx Playwrights Circle. We are also excited to host Read-Alongs for the fans by the fans! If you’ve loved seeing our shows in the past and have longed to jump up on stage and participate, we have picked some crowd favorites for you, our audiences, to read out loud over Zoom. We hope to provide some ways to help our community to come together and be creative, including sharing our favorite material, bolstering our artists’ works, and giving space for our family to respond to what’s happening in the world right now.
Our next Read-Along will be Red Scare on Sunset by Charles Busch on Sunday, September 27 at 3pm. CLICK HERE to RSVP.
The Intensive Mentorship '19-'20 is a program created by Latinx Playwrights Circle's residency with Primary Stages, providing key support, collaboration, and visibility for Latinx playwrights. The program focuses on four playwrights partnering with four mentors culminating in four new plays. Playwrights were selected by multidisciplinary artists and mentored by Migdalia Cruz, Carmen Rivera, J. Julian Christopher, and Cándido Tirado. Each Digital Reading will be led by a panel underscoring unique themes of our Latinx playwrights' new work. We’re proud to present Digital Readings of Noelle Viñas’ Derecho, Nilsa Reyna’s Legends of Texas, Andrew Rincón’s The Lonely, and Andres Osorio’s Hostel Play.
CLICK HERE to learn more and RSVP for the first two Digital Readings.
Our
Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts o
ffers online classes as an extension of our time-tested writing curriculum! Our online classes help you create or polish a draft of your new play through weekly assignments and written lectures, providing the necessary structure and deadlines to those outside the tri-state area or with unpredictable schedules. Students will have access to their instructor and classmates via a virtual classroom, including virtual class time and file-sharing capabilities. CLICK HERE for a listing of online acting, writing, directing, and producing classes available now for registration!
Detention is an evening of new and original theater pieces written, directed, and performed exclusively by ESPA artists. In this series, ESPA playwrights are given two weeks to create new, short plays based on a specific writing assignment. These plays are then paired with ESPA actors and directors, and presented in a one-night-only performance. This special virtual edition of Detention is a challenging opportunity for writers to create material for a specific person, for actors to receive and perform a monologue written especially for them, and for directors to rehearse and create a performance virtually. Our most recent Detention #50 was held May 8, 9, and 10. CLICK HERE for more information and to watch the performances on YouTube.
We have compiled a group of resources from our sister theaters and other networks that we think artists may find helpful. CLICK HERE to access many different types of financial, artistic, and personal resources for artists at this time.
Through all the cycles of upheaval and uncertainty that have threaded their way through human history, the arts have remained a north star for so many in need of comfort. A public health crisis does not discriminate and so many people are affected right now, but theaters going dark across the country are a stark reminder of our artistic community in need. If you have the means and feel less financially impacted, please consider supporting programs like these that encourage creativity and connection for everyone. It is through our communities and caring for one another that we'll see this through. CLICK HERE to make a donation.
Primary Stages free Primary Plus programs are made possible thanks to the generous support of the Axe-Houghton Foundation and The Howard Gilman Foundation.
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