The American Dance Guild Performance Festival: 10 Years Over 10 Weeks October 12-18: Donald McKayle, Erick Hawkins (2009). Reaching into its archival treasure trove of rarely seen recordings of past events, The American Dance Guild on October 12 will begin a virtual offering 10 Years Over 10 Weeks, a rich collection of video performances of honorees and guest artists over the last ten years of ADG Performance Festivals. The video stream, which will run for ten weeks, will feature works by more than 25 dance luminaries from ADG Festivals 2009-2019. Each of the Festival artists will appear sequentially by year, running for one week. The live festival has been postponed this year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The yearly American Dance Guild Festival is a themed live event which presents over 30 artists of diverse backgrounds, ages and aesthetics ranging from modern to post-modern, to performance art to cultural hybrids.  As well, each year luminaries in Dance are recognized with awards of Distinguished Artistry and Lifetime Achievement, and it is these artists who are featured in this special presentation.

8pm: The Seth Concert Series hosts Beth Leavel Beth Leavel just starred in her 13th broadway show, The Tony nominated and Drama Desk Winner for Best Musical, The Prom. She was awarded with Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award nominations for leading actress in a musical for her portrayal of Dee Dee Allen, a role written specifically for her. Beth also received a Tony, Drama Desk, NY Outer Critics Circle and LA Drama Critics Award for her performance as the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway as well as receiving a Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle award nomination for her role as Florence Greenberg in Baby, It’s You. Other Broadway roles include June Adams in Bandstand, Emily in Elf, Donna in Mamma Mia!, Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, Dorothy Brock in the revival of 42nd Street, Tess in the original company of Crazy For You, Mrs. Bixby in The Civil War, Ellie in Hal Prince’s Showboat, and Anytime Annie (Broadway debut) in 42nd Street. She has made numerous appearances on television and in commercials. It was recently announced that Beth is slated to play Miranda Priestly in Elton John’s upcoming musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada on Broadway next season.

Seth Rudetsky’s internationally acclaimed Broadway concert series that first began in Provincetown at The Art House in 2011 will debut as a weekly virtual series entitled The Seth Concert Series. Presented by Mark Cortale the series premiered ten years ago and is currently housed in more than a dozen major venues worldwide. In its new format, the series will continue to offer viewers a seamless mix of behind-the-scenes stories prompted by Rudetsky’s insightful, funny and revealing questions – and the music from the artists’ stellar careers.

7:30pm: American Moor Red Bull Keith Hamilton Cobb performs in his play about an African-American actor responding to the demands of role he long resisted, that of Othello.

7:30pm: Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor The title role of Donizetti’s chilling tragedy based on Sir Walter Scott has become an icon in opera and beyond, an archetype of the constrained woman asserting herself in society. The insanity that overtakes and destroys Lucia, depicted in opera’s most celebrated mad scene, has especially captured the public imagination. The composer’s handling of this fragile woman’s state of mind remains seductively beautiful, thoroughly compelling, and deeply disturbing, but the score as a whole brilliantly displays the composer’s mastery of bel canto vocal writing.

Trailer: Arlekin Players Theatre "State vs. Natasha Banina" from Baryshnikov Arts Center on Vimeo.

8pm: Baryshnikov Arts Center: State vs. Natasha Banina  From Boston’s award-winning Arlekin Players Theatre, this interactive digital production is set inside a live “ZOOM courtroom,” where the virtual audience serves as the jury. Performer Darya Denisova gives a “mesmerizing portrayal” (The Boston Globe) of Natasha Banina, a teen orphan on trial for a crime of passion, whose alluring testimony reveals her dreams for love, family, and freedom.

This inventive digital production that began in May 2020 as a living room experiment and went on to earn critical acclaim from The New York Times is based on Natasha’s Dream by the Russian playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich. Says director Igor Golyak, “We are creating a new art form to overcome social distancing, the pandemic, and ultimately unite people in one virtual space by merging theater, cinematography, and video games.” A leading example of innovation in virtual theater, State vs. Natasha Banina is evidence that live performance can engage audiences even when experienced at home.

8pm: Stars in the House: Guest Host Brenda Braxton and friends welcomes Bobby Daye, Tamara Tunie, Monica L Patton and Ramona Keller.

8pm: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party Join the next episode of Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party on YouTube with special guests Marc Shaiman, Margot Seibert, Jann Klose, Ava Locknar and Karina Nuvo.

The NYC open mic night has moved online due to the ban on mass gatherings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

8pm: Bindlestiff Open Stage Variety Show: Quarantine Edition Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc. is a nonprofit performing arts organization dedicated to increasing the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of circus, sideshow, vaudeville, and related arts through performances, lectures, media, and workshops for the general public, and through the creation of opportunities for cultural exchange and community among performing artists. Through performance, teaching, and outreach, Bindlestiff preserves, contemporizes, and enriches the cultural heritage of the variety arts.

The circus and variety arts have the power to lift our spirits, bring people together, and create moments of joy. The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus needs your help to continue our work creating spectacles that delight, programs that foster youth development, and opportunities for emerging performers. 

We invite you to support our mission to cultivate, develop, and sustain the variety arts by making a tax-deductible donation. Your support makes it possible to do what we do. Thank you.

8:30pm: Reflecting Shakespeare TV By The Old Globe Discover William Shakespeare’s text and characters as a launch point for self-reflection to create community and reduce isolation.

Reflecting Shakespeare TV, The Old Globe’s program originally created for people experiencing incarceration, invites you to keep journaling along to its second season.