Updates for the week of November 30
In this newsletter, you’ll find…
A note from co-artistic director, Zeynep Akca
The cast announcement for our next show, “La Ronde,” adapted and directed by Reuven Glezer
The activist organization we are supporting with this week’s performance
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Note from co-artistic director, Zeynep Akca
Last weekend, we presented WILDFIRE: Before the Bloom on a private Zoom, to an exclusively Black audience. Director Courtney Bryan Devon and cast and team members Sade Murray, RJ Christian, and Jackie Alexis performed this devised piece from the Mark West Center for the Arts. If you’re asking, “Well when can I see this show,” while we don’t have a concrete day yet, we will be releasing a documentary form presentation of WILDFIRE: Before the Bloom at a later date. If you would like to continue supporting the Black creatives that put in tremendous amounts of work for this production we will continue to accept in-kind donations, for which a list can be found on our Instagram.
Also, on November 25th, we presented “This is Not What It’s Supposed to Be…” a devised piece facilitated and directed by myself and Brennan O’Rourke in partnership with the Community Acts course at the MA in Applied Theatre Program at CUNY School of Professional Studies. This performance is still available on our Facebook page.
This week we are so excited to partner with The Sandra Kahn Wasserman Center for Jewish Studies and director Reuven Glezer in bringing together a Zoom adaptation of La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler as the first play in our “Born to Join in Love” micro-season. In this season we are exploring the many different facets of loving one another. La Ronde focuses on the deep human connections we miss or attempt to make in interpersonal relationships and especially at a time of physical isolation.
Reuven Glezer’s adaptation could not be more timely as Covid-19 case numbers rise and the false sense of normalcy of the last few months that some have been experiencing is going away. Many are still taking large risks going on in-person dates, while many are trying to figure out how to make it work in digital spaces. All in hopes of finding intimacy or love, or even just the thrill of being in the presence of another person. The fact that people have not stopped trying to make those connections and that we are making digital theatre to feel connected, to feel a sense of community just goes to show that it is absolutely human nature to be social.
This partnership with the Jewish Theatre Project at The Sandra Kahn Wasserman Center for Jewish Studies is the beginning of hopefully many partnerships. If you have a project in mind and would like to collaborate with NETC please reach out to us at noexittc@gmail.com or via our Facebook page.
No Exit’s Fortnightly Reading Series presents:
La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler
Adapted and directed by Reuven Glezer
Co-produced with the Sandra Kahn Wasserman Center for Jewish Studies at CUNY Baruch College
Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 PM ET
Run time: Less than 90 minutes, with a Q&A with the artists to follow
Anja Avsharian is The Whore
Ben Natan is The Soldier & The Count
Theodosia Arcidiacono is The Maid
Daniel Cabrera is The Gentleman
Myka Cue is The Husband
Anita Okoye is The Wife
Erin Gruodis-Gimbel is The Little Miss
Zeke Bocklage is The Poet
Meagan Sisler is The Actress
Zahra Jean is our Swing
Technical directed by Daisy Phillips.
Organization we’re supporting this week
The director for each show selects an activist organization to support. This week, we’re supporting the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
For this production, all donations will be going directly to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), an organization that has been on the front lines for the resettlement and support of refugees since their inception in 1881. Through the years, HIAS has never wavered in their mission, from supporting Jewish refugees fleeing European violence, to resettling Vietnamese immigrants displaced by the War in Vietnam, to supporting those whose homes have been destroyed in the Syrian Civil War. HIAS represents some of the best in humanity and we couldn't be more proud to give back in any way we can.
Contributing artists for this project are being paid via a stipend. You can support our art by donating to our tip jar, @NoExit-TC on Venmo.