Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) continues to deliver virtual theatre by announcing their “MTC Virtual Stage 2021” Programming.

This includes a variety of performances from choreography, new monologues, and works previously shown live on stage. The lineup includes Camille A. Brown, Charlayne Woodard, Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Ari Groover, Samantha Williams, Daryl Waters, Juel D. Lane, Richard Wesley, and Oz Scott.

In addition, MTC is currently accepting monologue submissions from high school students for the Student Monologue Challenge and selected monologue responses will air on Wednesdays beginning February 10.

Interested in learning more about the shows? We got you.

Ritual

Samantha Williams by Photographer Nathan Johnson

A spell for healing and transformation

Premiering February 1 through February 6

Ritual is a digital manifestation of magic and intention: starting on February 1, experience a five-day journey and guide to create your own personal spell for healing and transformation that culminates in a collective gathering and casting of energy at precisely 2:06p on 2/06.

Please Welcome Our Guest

A personality test / performance piece

Liza Birkenmeier, a playwright without a personality, gives you a personality assessment. With the help of a surprise guest star and an experimental survey, maybe she’ll guide you toward a better understanding of your unique self.

Camille A. Brown by Josefina Santos

Camille A. Brown

A glimpse behind the curtain

A rare and intimate look inside the mind and creative process of this superstar director and choreographer as she prepares for her re-envisioned production of the landmark musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ (an upcoming co-production between Barrington Stage Company and Westport Country Playhouse).

Untitled Vampire Cowboys Project

An original treat for pop culture nerds everywhere

Vampire Cowboys, New York’s favorite “geek theatre” company, takes you on an up close and personal rollicking ride through the life of the notorious Julie D’Aubigny: the queer, 17th-century, opera-singing adventurer from their hit show, Revenge Song.

Juel D. Lane by Matt Karas

The Past Is The Past

The scene is a pool hall, where a man in his mid-40s shoots a solitary game until a college student

he has never met challenges him to play. As their game goes on, it becomes clear that the men recognize each other and have a deep connection. While the truth emerges, so does the fact that the past must remain just that.

Three Days Of Rain

Set in New York, Three Days of Rain finds siblings Nan and Walker reconnecting with their childhood friend Pip when they come home to settle their father’s estate. The discovery of a diary brings us back in time to their parents’ lives in the 1960s and to the truth of the legacy that connects the generations.

Charlayne Woodard

Neat

Charlayne Woodard returns to MTC to perform her magical, compelling, and inspiring portrait of a young woman’s coming of age, and her realization that some of life’s most difficult times can also be the most fulfilling.

Beauty Of The Father

Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz’ passionate and lyrical love triangle explores the conflict between

Octavia Chavez-Richmond by Jessica Osber

love and sacrifice. Set in Andalusia, Spain, where the restless ghost of Federico Garcia Lorca still wanders through the streets, The Beauty of the Father is the story of a young American girl who travels abroad to meet her estranged father and risks their reconciliation when she becomes romantically entangled with his companion

“Student Monologue Challenge: Wave 3”

MTC Education continues the Student Monologue Challenge as a way to offer high school students a platform to express what was on their minds and have begun accepting a second round of submissions for a new prompt – “You have no idea…” Selected monologue responses to the new prompt will air on Wednesdays beginning February 10.

Access the Student Monologue Challenge to submit before March 31, 2021.

“The Show Goes On”

Once a month, MTC will continue revisiting some of its greatest hits and rare gems, with production footage alongside new stories and commentary from original members of the cast and creative team.

For additional information, check out Manhattan Theatre Club.

The post Theatre Thrives On MTC’s Virtual Stage appeared first on Broadway Black.

The six-time Tony winner will be absent from the production for three months starting Tuesday, June 21, 2016 through Sunday, September 25. It’s been announced that her absence is to fulfill a prior commitment. However, there have been no details released on what that commitment is or who will fulfill the role in her absence. McDonald is scheduled to return to the show on September 27.

Shuffle Along will present the landmark 1921 African-American musical revue Shuffle Along alongside the behind-the-scenes details that led the songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake and librettists F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles to create this groundbreaking work. In what has been billed as a revival, McDonald will take on the role of “Lottie Gee” and Brian Stokes Mitchell will appear in the the role of “F.E. Miller.” Porter takes on the role of “Aubrey Lyles,” with Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua Henry as “Blake” and “Sissle.”

Other cast members include Adrienne Warren from Bring It On: The Musical, Darius de Haas (Rent, Kiss of the Spider Woman), Felicia Boswell (Motown: The Musical, Memphis), and Christian Dante White, c0-creator of Broadway Legacy.

George C. Wolfe will write the book and direct and Savion Glover will choreograph the highly anticipated production. As previously announced, the rest of the creative team includes Orchestrator Daryl Waters (musical supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations), Santo Loquasto (scenic design), Ann Roth (costume design), Scott Lehrer (sound design), Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (lighting design), and Shelton Becton (musical director).

In 2014, the extraordinarily talented McDonald made Broadway history with a record-setting sixth Tony Award, for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. She also has the distinction of being the first person to receive awards in all four actress acting categories. She has also won Tonys for Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and Porgy and Bess.

Shuffle Along begins previews at the Music Box Theatre on March 14, 2016. For more information on tickets, click HERE.

The post Audra McDonald to Take Shuffle Along Hiatus appeared first on Broadway Black.

The new production traces the path to unexpected success and the creative legacy of the 1921 all-Black revue Shuffle Along, which was conceived by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles and featured music by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, four celebrated vaudeville performers who met at a 1920 NAACP benefit. As one of the first all-Black Broadway musical hits that was also written by Blacks, Shuffle Along significantly altered the face of the Broadway musical as well as that of New York City. The show opened the door for Black performers and writers on the stage during the period in the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Notwithstanding its success, Shuffle Along was not without its challenges. By contemporary standards, it remains problematic: some actors performed in blackface and the score included a song about how lighter-skinned Black women are more attractive than women with darker skin. Shuffle Along arrived in Depression-era New York mired in debt from a pre-Broadway tour, set to open at a remote Broadway house on West 63rd Street. And despite being celebrated vaudeville performers, Miller and Lyles and Sissle and Blake had never performed on Broadway, much less written a musical.

However, Shuffle Along immediately caught on with its jazzy score and exuberant song-and-dance styles. “It was a groundbreaking moment – they were creating these dances in the streets,” Mr. Glover said. “I’m hoping to reignite that sense of exuberance – that sense of joy through expression.” The plot involved two old friends who run against one another for the office of mayor of their town, each promising to hire the other if elected. Once in office, however, the two find themselves at odds. “I’m in love with these characters, and I’m in love with their bravery – brilliant, astonishing, extraordinary artists created a show that redefined rhythm and entertainment and vitality on Broadway,” Mr. Wolfe said. Shuffle Along ran for over 480 performances, helping to launch the careers of such artists as Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Florence Mills, Fredi Washington and Paul Robeson.

Audra McDonald made Tony Awards history in 2014 with her sixth win, becoming the first performer to have taken home Broadway’s highest honor in all four acting categories in which she is eligible. She has won twice as featured actress in a musical, for Carousel in 1994 and Ragtime in 1998; twice for featured actress in a play, in Master Class in 1996 and A Raisin in the Sun in 2004; and for lead actress in a musical in 2012 for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. McDonald completed the grand slam last year, winning for lead actress in a play with her transformative portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Wolfe and Glover both won Tonys for their work on Bring in ‘da Noise, and Wolfe had previously won directing honors for the two-part Angels in America.

Previews for Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed begin on March 14, 2016, at the Music Box Theatre, with official opening set for April 21.

The post Audra McDonald Will Shuffle Along With Savion Glover & George C. Wolfe appeared first on Broadway Black.