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Focusing The Line Of Sight

Greta Timmins | August 27, 2020

Topics: black lives matter, Cadence Theatre Company, Marcus-David Peters Circle, Omiyemi (Artisia) Green, Reclamation Square, Sitelines BLM, theatre in richmond va

With Sitelines BLM, Cadence Theatre Company launches a project focusing on sites of importance to Richmond’s BIPOC residents, especially those that have been reshaped by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Cadence Theatre Company is currently seeking submissions for its newest project, Sitelines BLM, a series of filmed plays and screenplays that hope to center BIPOC voices in Richmond by focusing on places that are being reshaped through the Black Lives Matter movement.

The project was created by Omiyemi (Artisia) Green, an associate professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at William & Mary who has been a resident dramaturge at Cadence for the last two years and this year became a member of the theatre’s artistic board of directors. Green was inspired to create Sitelines BLM by the summer that preceded the announcement of the project.

“COVID-19 and social unrest have shaken the American Theatre,” Green said. “As a result, the corporate theatrical body – its racist policies and practices – have been called on the carpet.”

Green saw Cadence, a predominantly white institution, as a place that could respond to the disruption of American theatre by creating a project that was “meaningful, sustainable, collaborative, and reciprocal — and, most importantly, in a way which truly recognized and centered BIPOC voices and artistry.”

The original Sitelines project, which Cadence launched in 2015, sought to bring theater into new and innovative spaces in Richmond through free performances in various Richmond locations. Previous Sitelines projects include The Flick by Annie Baker, shown in 2015, My name is Rachel Corrie, shown in 2017, and The Gun Show by EM Lewis, also shown in 2017.

For Sitelines BLM, Cadence collaborated with a variety of groups and organizations — including Oakwood Arts; the William & Mary programs in Africana Studies and Theatre, Speech, and Dance; the University of Richmond Free Theatre and Dance; and VCUarts Theatre, as well as Cadence’s producing partner, Virginia Repertory Theatre — to create a visual storytelling project that will focus on BIPOC voices in Richmond.

Green mentioned Marcus-David Peters Circle, Reclamation Square outside City Hall, and Richmond’s African Burial Ground as examples for potential storytelling locations. However, writers are not limited to those locations — Green explained that potential locations can come from sites of memory, of reclamation and reimagination, resistance, displacement and injustice, and ritual or spiritual activation.

“[The examples are used] to inspire commissioners to consider any space in Richmond that presents itself as a siteline – a space where the people wrestle with history and memory, a space that has been reclaimed and reimagined by the community, a space where the people have intentionally unified under a common purpose — to use their body and voice in service of the highest calling,and that is fighting injustice on behalf of the marginalized and voiceless,” Green said.

Green looked to recommendations from members of the Richmond community, places she heard about in the news, and places she heard about on her social media timeline when deciding which places could make good locations in Richmond.

“None of my work is done in a vacuum,” she said. “In community engaged work, especially as a semi-outsider, it is especially important that I engage the people who live here in determining what needs to be elevated or addressed.”

Besides centering BIPOC voices and artistry, Green hopes Sitelines BLM will create increased recognition and opportunities for BIPOC writers and artists in Richmond, in all areas of creative production and administration.

“Hopefully, through the artistic relationships we build through the work, we develop an even larger pipeline of talent to be fueled into other areas of the work of Cadence Theatre, and the broader Richmond theatre community,” said Green.

For Sitelines BLM, Cadence will ultimately commission work from five local writers; interested candidates should submit one screenplay or play no more than five minutes in length. The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 14 by 11:59pm. Selected writers will be notified by October 16, and full scripts finalized by December. Production for Sitelines BLM is expected to begin in 2021.

“I would love to see stories brought into the line of sight that haven’t been told before,” Green said. “Stories that compel us to act in ways that bring balance to malevolent forces and adversaries of goodness within the world, stories that elevate our cultural consciousness and strengthen our commitment to being better individually.”

For information on the submission process for Sitelines BLM, go to https://cadencetheatre.org/sitelines-blm.

Curtain Call Podcast Checks In On Local Theatre During Coronavirus Pandemic

Marilyn Drew Necci | April 16, 2020

Topics: CultureWorks Richmond, Curtain Call RVA, Jerry Williams, Open Source RVA, Richmond Performing Arts Alliance, Richmond Quarantine Theatre, Richmond Theatre Critics Circle, theatre in richmond va, WRIR

Times are tough all around, but Central Virginia’s theatre world is facing a particularly tough time at the moment. This podcast takes a closer look at the situation.

Chances are if you know Jerry Williams, it’s from his recent documentary, Spider Mites Of Jesus, which focuses on the colorful life of Richmond legend Donnie Corker, aka Dirtwoman. But Williams has been a fixture on the local artistic scene for a long time now, and one of his other major endeavors is the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle‘s Curtain Call RVA podcast, a bi-weekly creation for Open Source RVA that Williams produces.

For the latest episode, which will premiere on WRIR at noon on Friday, April 17 and be available on the RTCC website afterward, Williams has put together an extensive look at the many ways the Richmond theatre world is working to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The upcoming episode of Curtain Call RVA, which is over 50 minutes in length, speaks to representatives from every local theatre to learn how productions were affected by the outbreak, how compensation of those involved in shows was handled, how theatre staff is being affected, and what theatres are doing to ensure their survival until their next season… whenever that may be.

In addition, the podcast will also feature an interview with CultureWorks’s Scott Garka about the COVID-19 Artists Relief Fund the organization has set up. Plus, Jacqueline O’Connor of Richmond Performing Arts Alliance will give details on their Legends At Home livestream series, and the quartet of housemates who created Richmond Quarantine Theatre will talk about their own efforts to continue creating art under these trying circumstances.

If you care at all about theatre and performing arts in the Richmond area, you’ll definitely want to catch this new episode of Curtain Call RVA and get the scoop on what theatre in Richmond will look like throughout this trying time, and beyond. Williams and the RTCC are offering a message of support and hope for the local theatre scene, and reminding us all that we’re in this together, and the show must go on.

Top Photo via Virginia Rep/Facebook

Step Into The 1920s with Into the Woods’ Souvenir

RVA Staff | March 4, 2020

Topics: art, dame florence foster jenkins, dance, events, events in richmond va, events near me this weekend, events richmond va, Fan, fan district, gabrielle maes, into the woods, into the woods productions, plays, plays in richmond va, richmond events, richmond va, RVA, souvenir, stuart ave, the Fan, Theatre, theatre in richmond va, theatre richmond va, things to do in richmond va, things to do richmond va, voice club

In the living room of a Stuart Ave home in Richmond’s Fan District, the world’s worst opera singer comes to life… and this unique comedy play heads into its final weekend. 

Into the Woods Productions invites you to the living room of a Fan District home for its latest theater production, Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir, starring Gabrielle Maes and Levi Meerovich and directed by Chelsea Burke. A ticket to the show promises a night of heartwarming friendship, over-the-top humor, and the ear-splitting voice of the world’s worst opera singer. You might want to bring some ear plugs. 

Gabrielle Maes, founder of Into the Woods, stars as Dame Florence Foster Jenkins from the comfort of home. Maes has transformed the large double living room of her historic Stuart Avenue house into a set for Florence’s private music room, complete with framed portraits of the infamously untalented songstress, marble statuettes, and the obligatory grand piano.

“When you walk in, you really feel that you’re being transported back into a drawing room from the 1920s,” said Maes. The front room can only accommodate an audience of around 40; Levi Meerovich plays Cosme McMoon, Florence’s accompanist, as Maes’s only co-star. It’s sure to be unlike a traditional theater experience. “That’s the feeling,” said Maes. “It’s a truly intimate production.” 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

This isn’t the first time Maes has opened her home to an audience for the endeavors of her production company. Since Maes founded Into the Woods, she’s produced many theater performances and salon concerts using her own living room floor as a stage. 

Into the Woods also puts on Voice Club in Maes’s Stuart Avenue home, an intimate monthly gathering for showcasing any — and truly any — style of vocalized performance. Voice Club has hosted burlesque, flamenco, poetry, spoken word, drag, and stand-up comedy, among other voice-related talents. “It’s a lot of work, having to frequently move and rearrange the furniture,” said Maes. “But the acoustics in my house are great.” 

Maes founded Into the Woods in an attempt to raise industry standards in Richmond by ensuring that performers and artists are paid for their work. “There’s so many talented people here, and such a vibrant music and theater scene,” said Maes. “But the thing is, musicians and artists don’t really get paid. Which seems unusual to me, because I’ve always lived in places where we do.” 

Maes has lived in a lot of places — she grew up in Montreal, studied vocal performance in Jerusalem, lived in Paris and Milan as the mother of five children, and taught at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. She has lived and performed in a total of nine different countries, and it was in Malaysia that she first played the role of Dame Florence Foster Jenkins. She won the Boh Cameronian Award for best actor in her performance. 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

She now takes her award-winning Souvenir performance to the Fan District of Richmond, with an obvious affection for the role. Dame Florence was a wealthy New York City socialite and a dedicated patron to the arts, who then rose to infamy with an opera career of her own in the 1920s. “She was an absolutely horrific singer, and an incredibly eccentric person,” said Maes. “She liked to pose for these things they used to call ‘tableaus,’ but she was rather homely — big boobs, overweight, hook nose — but she didn’t care.”

“She was extremely theatrical and entertaining; she’d get dressed up in wigs and weird hats. People would go watch her sing to laugh at her, and she had no idea they were laughing, so it’s kind of tragic in a way,” said Maes. “But they kept paying to see her perform, and they loved her — her singing was ridiculous, but there was also something so genuine about her.”

Into the Woods’ production of Souvenir focuses on the more innocently heartwarming narrative in Florence’s life: the genuine, platonic love that she shared with her pianist, Cosme, a gay Mexican immigrant. As these are the only two roles billed, the singular drawing-room set of the venue inevitably leaves Florence’s public life up to the audience’s imagination. 

Maes asserts that there’s quite a rich story to tell of these two. Cosme accompanied Florence’s vocals for 12 years, from early obscurity to the pinnacle of her career, when she sold out Carnegie Hall. Cosme was not deaf, and therefore well-aware of her glaring lack of talent, and he saw the ridicule that she was so oblivious to. “He tries so desperately to protect her, and they end up becoming very good friends,” said Maes. “It’s a love story, really. It’s very poignant.” 

According to Maes, it’s also hysterically funny, with much of the humor derived from Florence’s obliviousness to Cosme’s exaggeratedly obvious homosexuality. “He hints at it constantly throughout the play,” said Maes, “yet she teases him relentlessly about the young ladies.” 

PHOTO: Wolfcrest Photography

Souvenir runs for its final weekend on Stuart Ave. from Thursday, March 5 through Saturday, March 7, with all showings at 8 pm. Once the faux marble statuettes imitating 1920s Manhattan have been traded back for Maes’s everyday living room decor, Voice Club will resume and Into the Woods will be onto planning its next production. And while it’s hard to say what that will be, Maes clearly has an affinity for opera. She directed for Capitol Opera about a year and a half ago, then produced and starred in a fully staged, full-orchestra Handel opera. But she’s also known for hosting plays underground (literally), with 15th-century tavern song concerts taking place in a cave-like building below Pump House Park… so expect the unexpected from Into the Woods. 

To learn more about Souvenir, find Into the Woods at their website and buy tickets to this weekend’s showings here. 

Top Photo by Wolfcrest Photography

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