Performing arts: TheatreWorks raises ‘Voices’ with election-year programming.
How better to entice stuck- at-home theatergoers to get involved in the upcoming election than by offering a menu of digital theatrical experiences collectively called “Voices of Democracy.”
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley opened “Voices” this week as a way to encourage its audiences to “get out to vote and to stand up for racial justice,” explains TheatreWorks’ new artistic director Tim Bond.
“Voices” will feature presentations of both plays and poems read by local actors as well as statements that “shine a light on underrepresented American voices speaking out about the timely and pressing issues during this election year,” Bond emphasizes. He anticipates releasing one work a week up to election week and beyond.
Bond took over for TheatreWorks’ longtime artistic director Robert Kelley in March, but says he actually didn’t take on full responsibility until July—“just three months ago, smack in the middle of the pandemic.”
Before coming to TheatreWorks, Bond was a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Drama for four years and also was in charge of its MSA acting program. “But I missed being with a community, being in a community,” he says.
“I’ve always been drawn to new works festivals like TheatreWorks,’ which have incubated new works and nursed them along, sometimes all the way to Broadway,” Bond adds. “I was also impressed by the company’s reputation for nontraditional casting. And it’s a very well-managed theater company.”
As to the pandemic, Bond says, “It has actually created new challenges for us that have forced us to embrace the digital world.”
“Voices of Democracy” offers six separate presentations, all of which are streaming on different dates. Once each debuts, it will remain on the TheatreWorks website at least until the election.
The poem “Courage Rising” by Beau Sia began streaming Sept. 29. It is
read by actors Aldo Billingslea, Roneet Aliza Rahamim, Khalia Davis, Jomar Tagatac, Rinabeth Apostol, Steven Flores, Juan Amador, Leigh Rondon-Davis and Phil Wong.
The second production, playwright Jeanne Sakata’s “Hold These Truths,” was set to begin on Oct. 6. “Truths” was first presented (and filmed) at TheatreWorks in 2018. Directed by Lisa Rothe, “Hold These Truths” is the story of a Jap
anese American who passionately defends his Constitutional rights against an unexpected adversary: his own country. It stars Joe de la Fuentes as the lead character, Gordon Hirabayaski, who refused to be relocated to a Japanese internment camp during World War II. “Truths” can be viewed for a $10-$100 sliding scale fee.
Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too,” read by Bond, began streaming Oct. 8.
The radio play “It Can’t
Happen Here” was slated to start its virtual run on Tuesday. TheatreWorks is teaming up with Berkeley Repertory Theatre as a broadcast partner for this play on YouTube at 5 p.m. Written in 1935 during the rise of fascism in Europe, Sinclair Lewis’ darkly satirical story follows the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness.
This time “It Can’t Happen Here” will be presented as a radio play in four episodes. TheatreWorks joins a network of leading regional theatres including American Conservatory Theater, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse and Roundabout T heatre Company and Jewel Theatre in Santa Cruz in co-presenting the audio drama free of charge.
“TheatreWorks began 50 years ago during a time of uncertainty in our nation’s history and hope for a better world,” Bond says. “Like today, everyday people were marching in the streets, making their voices heard and demanding more from their democracy. Great theater and great art can provoke thought, provide different points of view, open hearts and make us, as the late U. S. Representative John Lewis once said, ‘stand up, speak up, speak out.’”
Next up on Thursday was scheduled a Robert Kelley interview about racial justice with Tony-award winning Broadway actor (and TheatreWorks alum) James Monroe Iglehart. Bond says Kelley originally interviewed Iglehart several months ago, “but after the George Floyd shooting, I asked him to talk to James again.” The interview incorporates both of these conversations.
Just before the election, starting on Oct. 30, a reading of another Langston Hughes poem, “Let America Be America Again,” will be read by Billingslea. One more poem will be announced at a later date.
“My plans are to continue this initiative after the election with more virtual content continuing the ‘ Voices of Democracy’ theme,” Bond adds.