The Wilbury Theatre Group Announces New Streaming Programs

After a widely successful first round of streaming events, The Wilbury Group announces new events to be streamed through May 6.

In addition to the previously announced performances of New and Dangerous Ideas by Christopher Johnson and CVK: Clever and Vainglorious Kings by Jesse Hawley and James Stanley, and the Quarantine Cabaret curated by Jen Mischley, upcoming programming includes streaming performances of new works by Gray Horan, Brien Lang, Darcie Dennigan, Marcel Mascaro, Teddy Lytle, and Andy Russ.

"The response that we've seen to our streaming programming has been overwhelming," says Wilbury Artistic Director Josh Short. "It's allowed us to stay engaged with our audiences and keep many of our artists working through this crisis. We're extremely grateful to all our supporters who've made this possible and to Josh Fenton at GoLocalProv, who has helped us reach a wider audience than we ever could have dreamed."

"While we understand that we will almost certainly need to cancel the rest of our season at this point, including our spring production of American Psycho," continues Short, "we're determined to continue working and serving our community as best as we're able. We're learning a lot, and we're excited by this opportunity to continue to stretch outside of our comfort zone with the New Medium that is live-streaming."

Audience members will be able to watch the performances live via The Wilbury Group Facebook page, YouTube, and on the GoLocalProv website at golocalprov.com. Archive video of livestreamed events is available on The Wilbury Group's website for future viewings.

View the current schedule of performances below. For more information about the performances or The Wilbury Group's livestreaming program, visiting thewilburygroup.org/streaming.

Schedule of Upcoming Performances

Wednesday, April 8 at 6pm
New and Dangerous Ideas Christopher Johnson
Winner of the 2018 Playwriting Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, New and Dangerous Ideas is a multi media experience, challenging ideas of criminalizing race and sex, expatriating police while humanizing statistics by using personal stories of several members of different communities intersected with spoken word poetry, framed in music, dance and video. Originally presented in an earlier form in the Wilbury Theatre Group's 2017/18 Season, New and Dangerous Ideas by Providence's unofficial poet laureate Christopher Johnson takes a revised and updated look at race in America.

Friday, April 10 at 7pm
CVK: Clever and Vainglorious Kings by Jesse Hawley and James Stanley
CVK is a multi-faceted performance project that consists of a.) the manufacture of an 80s synth pop band that never was; and, b.) a staging of their triumphant reunion tour. Fully inhabiting their post-punk alter egos in CVK, performance artist duo Jesse Hawley and James Stanley create a hybrid theatrical retrospective of CVK's work, a show that combines musical performance, video, dance, storytelling and various forms of immersive theatrical hi-jinx. They offer a danceable meditation on the circularity of history, and a how-to guide in the subversion of tribal conservatism.

Sunday, April 12 at 7pm
Send in the Clowns! The Quarantine Comedy Cabaret hosted by Jen Mischley
4 weeks sure is a long time to be socially distant. Blow off some steam with Jen Mischley and friends at the first ever Corona Cabaret. All together now, but still 6-feet apart. Featuring performances by Shannon Hartman, Aimee Doherty, Kevin Patrick Martin, Jason Loete, Freeman T. Freeman, Brien Lang, Maggie Papa & Brian Kozak, Sherry Romanzi, Brennan Srisirikul, Aaron Blanck, Sarah Pothier, and Rachael Warren.

Wednesday, April 15 at 7pm
Twelve Installations by Gray Horan
Discover La Parisienne. Not only is she a work of art, she's a real piece of work! Originally scheduled as part of a micro-performance for "The Grand Gallery" at RISD MUSEUM, we're switching gears to debut an excerpt of the play (Installation #9) as part of the Wilbury Group's streaming program. Twelve Installations takes audiences on the fantastical and comical journey of an acclaimed painting, La Parisienne by Robert Delaunay. She's a creative triumph, a provocative beauty and a cunning survivor. The play follows her from Paris to Berlin to Texas and beyond. Featuring performances by Tanya Anderson and Rae Mancini, and directed by Milly Massey, audiences are invited to take peek at what happens when art comes to life in this innovative new play by Rhode Island playwright, Gray Horan.

Sunday, April 19 at 7pm
A Painting (and Murder!) by Numbers by Darcie Dennigan & Brien Lang
A live radio play originally written and developed by The Wilbury Group for The Providence Athenaeum Mysterious Affair fundraising event in January, A Painting (and Murder!) by Numbers is the very silly tale of a group of friends gathered for the first time in many years at a secluded country home. When a valued painting goes missing along with its owner, the ensuing search sees old suspicions arise, terrible secrets revealed, and new paintings... painted.

Friday, April 24 at 7pm
The My Way Murders by Brien Lang
Karaoke, betrayal and murder are the driving themes behind The My Way Murders. A crowd favorite at the 2017 Providence Fringe Festival, and based very, very loosely on a true story, this comic musical outing tells the story of a karaoke bar where patrons were pushed to the edge and beyond. Featuring newly imagined versions of some karaoke classics, comedy and, of course, a little homicide. The My Way Murders are sure to please any fans of music and/or murder.

Sunday, April 26 at 7pm
a.dick.ted by Teddy Lytle
When you can't remember the single most important event that profoundly changed your life, do you stand a chance at changing for the better? A disjointed semi-interactive exploration of addiction, recovery, love, family and superheroes through poetry, music and intrusive thoughts. A new evolution of his MFA recital that was described as "raw and hilarious", actor Teddy Lytle digs even further into his own story to shed a light on the enigma of addiction from inside the mind of one who suffers from it.

Wednesday, April 29 at 7pm
Isolation Mutations with Darcie Dennigan
A night of being out of our minds on purpose... We will read a bunch of short absurdist pieces by Soviet-era absurdist playwright Daniil Kharms. And then we will take pieces of our daily quarantined conversations and mutate them into a 5-minute scenes of derangement.

Friday, May 1 at 7pm
TBD by Andy Russ
Performance artist Andy Russ is cooking up something and it's going to be something good. An electrifying exercise in sound, meaning, and storytelling, it's certain to be a unique theatre experience unlike anything audiences have ever seen. Again.

Wednesday, May 6 at 7pm
Tear It Up: a night of breaks, fissures, and imperfections with Darcie Dennigan
We're well into the vernal equinox but we know the balance has not and may never be righted in favor of light. We will rip apart our private and public (they are the same after all) disasters and write into--and out of-- the breach. No whole plays will be created: just pieces of plays or one play that will never be finished though you write it every day of your life, or just private words in your notebook that do nohing but prove you were alive for those minutes.

More events to-be-announced!

The Wilbury Theatre Group's live-streaming performance schedule is presented with support from GoLocalProv. To learn more about the program, or view previously streamed events, visit our website at thewilburygroup.org/streaming.

To support The Wilbury Theatre Group's programming during the COVID-19 crisis, make a donation at www.thewilburygroup.org/support.