Artistic Stamp. This new company, with scripts by six playwrights, takes “audiences” on an unusual journey, through handwritten correspondence. For each play, the actors exchange seven letters over several months with audience members becoming a character in the story, replying to the letters and playing a role in deciding the outcome. All six plays launch today.

3pm: The Seth Concert Series: Judy Kuhn! starred last season as Golde in London in the sold-out production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a role she also played on Broadway in 2016. On Broadway, the four-time Tony Award nominee starred as Helen Bechdel in Fun Home (Tony & Drama League Award nominations) a role she created in the original Public Theater production for which she won the 2014 Lucille Lortell Award. Also on Broadway she starred in the Roundabout’s hit revival of She Loves Me (Tony nomination); and the original Broadway productions of Chess (Tony & Drama Desk nomination); Les Misérables (Tony & Drama Desk nomination); Rags (Drama Desk nomination); Two Shakespearean Actors (Lincoln Center Theatre), Alan Menken & Tim Rice’s King David; and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Other select theater includes: The Visit by John Kander, Fred Ebb & Terrence McNally at The Williamstown Theater Festival; Fosca in the much-lauded production of Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine’s Passion (Drama League Award nomination); the inaugural season of Encores! Off-Center in The Cradle Will Rock; US premiere of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. In the West End she starred in Metropolis (Olivier Award nomination). Judy sang the title role in Disney’s Pocahontas as well as the in the sequel Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World.

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.

The Seth Concert Series is hosted by Sirius XM host and Playbill contributor Seth Rudetsky. While normally held in Provincetown, Massachusetts, under the Broadway @ Art House banner, the performances will be held indoors from the stars’ homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

6pm: The Peace Summit Virtual Gala This gala kicks off a week-long Peace Summit (September 21-26) which marks the conclusion of The Peace Studio’s global campaign, 100 Offerings of Peace. The campaign brings together creatives in visual, performing, literary, spiritual, and musical arts, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joyce DiDonato, and emerging artist Aaron Stokes to generate new works about what peace means to them, how they practice it, and where they see it could rise up and flourish amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the impassioned protests over centuries old racial injustices.

Peacebuilding During the Reckoning for Justice, Equality and Inclusion
Time: 6PM EST

Featuring: Maya Soetoro, co-founder of The Peace Studio; Bill T. Jones, choreographer and founder of New York Live Arts; and Roger Berkowitz, Director of the Arendt Center at Bard College

The Peace Studio Presents: Conversations that #OfferPeace
Time: 8pm

Featuring: Yoko Ono, Victor Ochen, Rhiannon Giddens, Midori Goto, Dawn Porter, Dr. David Nabarro, Sharon Salzberg, Rhonda V. Magee, Author and Professor at University of San Francisco

7pm: Legends of Texas By Primary Stages The Latinx Playwright Circle Primary Stages kicks off its fall virtual programming with Legends of Texas by Nilsa Reyna, members of Primary Stages’ 2019–2020 intensive class.

In a quintessential south Texas border town, sibling rivalry, past indiscretions, and devastating loss ignite in high-caliber drama, between the new owner of the family gun shop, and the ones that stayed behind. Touching upon themes of fear, grief, and forgiveness, Legends of Texas, is steeped in gun culture and the second amendment is their battleground.

7pm: New Voices 1998: Stars of Summer By Paper Mill Playhouse The annual New Voices concert is the culmination of Paper Mill Playhouse’s Summer Musical Theater Conservatory, featuring 120 talented student performers ages 10–18, directed and choreographed by Paper Mill Playhouse’s professional artistic staff.

7pm: Shout! The Mod Musical A One Night Only Presentation Of The Swingin’ 60s Musical Benefiting Amas Musical Theatre and TDF. SHOUT! follows five fab gals on a high-energy, hip-shaking, non-stop vibrant trip through the Swingin’ 60s that gave birth to such hits as “Downtown,” “To Sir With Love,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” and “Georgy Girl” — songs that express the changing attitudes and dawning liberation of women. This fun-filled musical is an irresistible blend of foot-stomping songs, eye-popping fashions and psychedelic dancing that will make you want to throw your head back and SHOUT!

7pm: Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre will present “2020 Poetry Jam: She Speaks, He Speaks, We Speak, Generations Speak.”  On both nights, three generations of outstanding African-American poets will accompany the audience on a spoken word journey. The lineup includes Mahogany L. Browne, Yusef Komunyakaa, Haki Madhabuti, jessica Care moore, Abiodun Oyewale, Sonia Sanchez, Shadenia Sivad, Quincy Troupe, Camryn Bruno, Renée McRae and Nathaniel Isiah Swanson. The program is designed to honor powerful voices, from revolutionary trailblazers to torch-bearing young artists, who invigorate today’s Black verse.

The evenings will be emceed and curated by Rev. Rhonda “Akanké” McLean-Nur and will also feature her along with other special guests.  Director is Petronia Paley, an award winning actor, playwright and director. Technician is Sarah Joseph.

7:30: La Rondine Puccini’s achingly beautiful score charmingly conveys the plight of Magda (the “swallow” of the title) who unexpectedly finds true love with the handsome young Ruggero. But their idyllic and happy life comes to an premature end as she is haunted by the fear that her checkered past will ruin his future. Real-life couple and operatic stars Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna portray Puccini’s star-crossed lovers. Ezio Frigerio’s elegant and sophisticated art deco sets add a dazzling touch to Nicholas Joël’s production, which premiered in 2008.

8pm: Lights Up on Voter Mobilization By Broadway Green Alliance Playbill Theatre artists and activists alike will gather September 21 for Lights Up on Voter Mobilization, a virtual town hall hosted by the Broadway Green Alliance. The stream, set for 8 PM ET, will share actionable steps to mobilize and register voters, break down candidates’ positions on climate issues, and explore the intersection of environmental and racial justice issues. Watch here on Playbill or at BroadwayGreen.com.

The lineup of participants includes Tony winner LaChanze (The Color Purple), her daughter Celiia Rose Gooding (Jagged Little Pill), Tony nominees Jenn Colella (Come From Away) and Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along), Javier Munoz (Hamilton), Anthony Rapp (Rent), and Kirsten Wyatt (A Christmas Story), as well as public speakers Marti Gould Cummings (drag artist and city council candidate), Reta Jo Lewis (Former Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs at the US Department of State), Kay Smith (founder of Flint Water Festival), and HeadCount’s Director of Voter Engagement Tappan Vickery.

8pm: Stars in the House: Guest Host Brenda Braxton and friends

8pm: Harlem Shakespeare Festival: Othello Enjoy an exciting 90-minute all-female stage-adaptation ofOthello: The Moor of Veniceby the Harlem Shakespeare Festival. It stars international actress/producer, Debra Ann Byrd, who recently received the Broadway World Best Lead Actress Award for her portrayal in the title role. Performed by a cast of eight classically trained actresses, they tell the story of a love that defies the boundaries of race. Together they transform a lover’s world of sighs into a universe of hurt…Othello: “Be careful who you trust!”

This program is presented in partnership with the Harlem Shakespeare Festival.

8pm: Tape After 10 years, three self-absorbed people are forced to reckon with the unresolved trauma of a high school love triangle. It’s about friendship and sexual betrayal, rivalry, and retribution. It raises questions about how we face the truth when others’ truths differ from ours. 

8pm: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party Join the next episode of Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party on YouTube with special guests that include Broadway alums and cabaret favorites!

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.