PLAYHOUSE, S.D. REP ROLL OUT TWO SHOWS
Ask most theater artists and fans their thoughts about the virtual theater productions that have exploded online during the pandemic and you're likely to get an unenthusiastic shrug. Except for the new high-production-values “Hamilton” film on the Disney+ streaming service, most of the digital drama now available online isn't drawing a lot of eyeballs.
But two ambitious productions that premiered last week pushed the envelope of what's possible in the virtual format: La Jolla Playhouse's interactive family-friendly production of “The Wizards of Oakwood Drive” and “Hershey Felder: Beethoven, a Play With Music,” which benefited San Diego Repertory Theatre.
“Wizards of Oakwood Drive,” which plays through Sunday, is part of the Playhouse's all-digital Without Walls Festival. Written by Tom Salamon, it's a Zoom-based, 45-minute live show performed for an audience of up to 10 children at a time.
Aimed at the 7-to-12 ages set, “Wizards” is the story of two magical siblings arguing over who's the best wizard. To prove their skills at sorcery, they take turns performing spells that cause items like a balloon and playing card to materialize in the children's homes. Spoiler alert: Their parents are in on the illusion.
Salamon's script is breezy and funny, with humor both children and adults will enjoy, including rhyming spells that reference Angela Merkel, David Beckham and Peppa Pig. The children get to pick their own wizard name and are enlisted to find the hidden items and share them on Zoom.
At the performance I saw, actors Edred Utomi and Jonathan Randell Silver played off each other amusingly as squabbling sibs Tom and Tim, respectively, and they improvised well when the kindergarten-age viewers got distracted or overly excited. Six actors alternate in the roles, including Connor Sullivan, Claire Chapelli, Eliana Payne and Sofia Sassone.
Performances are held every halfhour, with ticket availability in the afternoons this week and much of the day Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $25 per household. To sign up, visit lajollaplayhouse.org/wow-goes-digital/ wizards/.
“Hershey Felder: Beethoven, a Play With Music” — presented as a onenight-only livestream on July 12 — was a virtual version of the solo play he presented at San Diego Rep in February 2019.
To bring the show to life, the playwright, pianist and actor constructed scenery at three locations around his historic villa in Florence, Italy, and a Steadicam camera crew followed him as he moved around the moonlit grounds between 2 and 4 a.m. Italian time. The scenery included a piano room, a study, a chapel and an outdoor graveyard with a near-exact replica of Beethoven's tomb in Vienna.
The fascinating play tells the story of Ludwig van Beethoven's music and tortured life through the eyes of his longtime friend, Gerhard von Breuning. Felder alternated between the two characters and played excerpts from some of the Romantic composer's most famous works. There were several prefilmed segments that allowed Felder to make transitions between sets, as well as sound recordings, projections and moody lighting. All of it melded together seamlessly.
Felder plans to livestream more of his plays in the coming months. He started with his Irving Berlin piece in May. Other works in his composer canon include works about Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin and George Gershwin, among others. While Felder's goal is to cover his production costs, the first two shows were fundraisers for the 13 U.S. theaters where he performs regularly, including the Rep and a BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color) theater in Minneapolis.
The Beethoven livecast also featured the launch of the $25,000 Hershey Felder Arts Prize. Ticketholders could vote on five finalists who submitted videos on how Beethoven has influenced their art. They included a guitar orchestra, a dancer, a cellist, a songwriter and a harpist. The winner was Rita Costanzi, a harpist in The Bronx, who used Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to help describe the devastation COVID-19 wrought on New York in the spring. Her video can be viewed at: hersheyfelder.net.