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The New Works Virtual Festival

Kevin Pollack has been really busy in the days of COVID-19. There is the hit music video ”Holiday” on his YouTube channel that has been receiving significant recognition for both content and pure enjoyment.

With Thomas Eliot Squires, Pollack hosts the popular series Zooming the Movies on Facebook. Tonight’s offering is Miracle on 34th Street, a live benefit for the Actors Fund starring John Ruebenstein and featuring Megan Cavanaugh, David Girolmo and many others. The Grinch, A Christmas Story and Love Actually are in the works for the weeks ahead.

Pollack’s new album, The Other Side, will be available soon on Spotify. It’s a vigorous blend of 80’s retro and pop that should be on everyone’s Christmas download list.

But, Pollack’s roots are in the theatre and it is that artistic platform that is home for one of the most ambitious – and genuinely groundbreaking – virtual ventures of our sequestered time. The New Works Virtual Festival, founded by Pollack with actors Bart Shatto and Jim Auld, is running nightly through December 25, benefits The Actors Fund and showcases established and rising playwrights who receive a first-class virtual reading by an A-list roster of actors. The series has Chaz Ebert among its’ producers.

The Festival began in earnest on December 5 with “Oscar and Walt,” by Donald Steven Olson, a play about the meeting of Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Readings in recent weeks included “Secret Hour” by Jenny Stafford, “We the People” by Harrison Zeiberg.

Coming up tonight: “The Wickham Way” by Rachel Rubin Ladutke with songs by Lisa Brigantino that is set at a Vermont bed and breakfast during a paralyzing snowstorm with a mix of fascinating characters gathered together for the memorial of an influential and socially-forward mentor.

If you happen to be in Vermont in a paralyzing snowstorm—which most of Vermont is right now—or anywhere else for that matter, you should certainly tune in to this or any of the other free readings in the series. While you are there, support the effort of these creatives with a generous gift to The Actors Fund. For a complete list of plays and times, visit the Facebook live page.

The New Works Virtual Festival The twenty selected works, chosen from over 700 submissions, cover a broad spectrum of themes. Each reading includes a scrolling copy of the script in the lower third of the screen so the viewer can read along for themselves. The use of a narrator for stage directions varies from play to play. These are zoom readings of projects in various stages of development that are performed and presented extremely well.

Like and subscribe to The New Works Virtual Festival on Facebook and YouTube as well as: @newworksvirtualfestival on Instagram and @NWVfestival on Twitter for announcements and information. Use the hashtags #NWVFest and #NewWorksVirtualFestival for all related content. The Festival continues through December 25, 2020.

Read More: Jonathan Mandell Feature 12|5|2020

Support the Actors Fund by visiting: www.actorsfund.org/nwvfest


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The Beautiful City Project/Season of Concern—Project Mistletoe

#PicksInSix — Innovation. Humility. Fidelity. Tender Unwavering Commitment.

When you ask the multi-talented David Fiorello what six words come to his mind about the collaboration of The Beautiful City Project and Season of Concern, expect a thoughtful and earnest analysis of how much these two organizations have done, particularly in recent months, to amplify the voices of creative artists, vocalists and the multitude of community organizations who are keeping hope alive for everyone touched by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Beautiful City Project is an innovative organization that partnered with Season of Concern on March 19, 2020 to produce one of the first virtual benefits in the country for theatre artists. Fiorello told me he is grateful and in awe of the enormously gifted artists and industry professionals who are examples of humility and fidelity in their unified actions to help people in need, realizing that supporting the arts is everyone’s responsibility—a higher calling to provide emotional, transformative and financial relief.

Season of Concern’s early beginnings approached head-on the difficult and tragic consequences of the AIDS crisis with a tender, unwavering commitment—a guiding principle that has expanded to serve the evolving needs of the artist community year after year since 1987.

On Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. Central, it is your chance to give back. Seventy-five talented friends of Chicago music theatre combine their enormous energy and talent in The Beautiful City/Season of Concern Benefit Project Mistletoe to support their vitally important work. The Facebook Live concert is free but donations will be gratefully accepted. All donations will be met with a small gift.

For more information, visit: The Beautiful City Project or Season of Concern.

The Beautiful City Project/
Season of Concern Benefit
Project Mistletoe

Tuesday, December 8, 2020
7:00 p.m.
Facebook Live


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JEFF SHAARA - To Wake The Giant

JEFF SHAARA
TO WAKE THE GIANT
A Novel of Pearl Harbor

RECORDED LIVE

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2020

New York Times bestselling author Jeff Shaara discusses his newest historical fiction work, TO WAKE THE GIANT: A Novel of Pearl Harbor, with CONVERSATIONS host Ed Tracy.

The Crowdcast Virtual Event is part of an exciting new virtual author series sponsored and hosted by The Doylestown Bookshop, Lahaska, PA. Register for the event or purchase a copy of TO WAKE THE GIANT from The Doylestown Bookshop, HERE.

JEFF SHAARA and ED TRACY discuss TO WAKE THE GIANT in a CROWDCAST VIRTUAL EVENT, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 7 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Central)    REGISTER

JEFF SHAARA and ED TRACY discuss TO WAKE THE GIANT in a CROWDCAST VIRTUAL EVENT, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 7 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. Central) REGISTER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF SHAARA is the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen HoursThe Fateful LightningThe Smoke at DawnA Chain of ThunderA Blaze of GloryThe Final StormNo Less Than VictoryThe Steel WaveThe Rising TideTo the Last ManThe Glorious CauseRise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. JEFFSHAARA.COM

DOYLESTOWN BOOKSHOP
16 S Main Street
Doylestown, PA  18901
(215) 230-7610
mail@doylestownbookshop.com

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TRENT JAMES: Pure Lies - The Chicago Magic Lounge

Making Magic on North Clark—Trent James: Pure Lies

The Chicago Magic Lounge is a sleek, glistening nightclub dedicated to the craft of magic. From the moment you pass through its nondescript entrance, the captivating retro-whimsical atmosphere in the Performance Bar (a.k.a. David’s Bar) and adjoining Chicago Round Table Magic Library provide reason enough to check out the club at 5050 N. Clark Street on any evening. On the other side on a recent Wednesday awaits the Harry Blackstone Cabaret Theater and the fresh, exuberant talent of Trent James, whose arresting charm is every bit as appealing as his deft technique.

If you have heard about this spot before, you know the first test for newcomers is to find your way inside through the small faux-laundromat entryway. Like the magic to come, you’ll have to be perceptive to join the mayhem behind Washer I. (If all else fails, read the sign and ring the bell.) The cozy reception area, jammed in advance of the main-stage performance of “Trent James: Pure Lies,” has magic of its own in the specialty drinks and the menu choices available for every taste.

When the house opens, guests are escorted in small groups to the richly appointed, two-story vaulted Blackstone with its multi-tiered array of club tables, banquets and counter bars which provide every guest with an unobstructed view of the small stage. For the lucky dozen or so in the front row, there is a high probability that you will become part of the show.  

A team of tip-worthy magicians perform pre-show tableside effects while circulating in and among the guests. (Jan Rose and Luis Carreon stopped by our table.) By the time the lights go down, the house was filled to capacity for the fast-paced and clever James, who works alone, except when his pint-sized former partner tries to steal the show midway through.

Given the title, nothing is as it appears to be. There’s a nifty disappearing flute, an artful picking of the pocket of an audience member—this time it was “Michael” whose energetic yoga entourage cheered him on—and the mind-reading of a pug-lover. James’s youthful enthusiasm and self-effacing style clearly won over even the most die-hard pessimists, turning lemons into lemonade for all to see.

David’s Bar was still thriving an hour later—proof that the Chicago Magic Lounge is the kind of place that makes you wish you had stuck to those childhood dreams of making magical things happen and reminds you that it is never too late to begin. 

TRENT JAMES: Pure Lies
Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. through March 25, 2020
Tickets:
$35 (Main Floor)
$45 (Front Row)

THE CHICAGO MAGIC LOUNGE
5050 N. Clark Street


WEBSITE
(312) 366-4500

TRENT JAMES WEBSITE

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