Bored, but don’t feel like going out? Here are some arts venues still streaming shows, music
Streaming is still a thing. When COVID first happened and arts venues closed down for months, theaters and musicians and comedians shifted online. There were living room concerts, performances on stages in otherwise shuttered theaters, concerts beamed from artists’ own living rooms.
With new strains of the COVID virus still a threat and people still making careful decisions about where and how often to go out, virtual programming remains a great entertainment option. There’s only a fraction of the offerings that there were a couple of years ago, but there are more than enough to liven up the odd evening when you just don’t feel like leaving the house.
Earlier this month, the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven live-streamed its third annual “Black Trans Women at the Center” festival of short plays, for a single live free virtual performance. Playreading festivals are a great example of the type of event that has thrived online. Playreadings are often unadorned, script-in-hand affairs with no sets or props.
Churches were some of the strongest and most reliable adopters of streaming technology during COVID. Long after the congregations were able to return to the pews, many continue to stream not just their religious services but talks and musical concerts. Hartford’s Cathedral of St. Joseph is among the many churches that not only live stream music events but keep an online archive of them.
City and town libraries throughout the state, including Hartford Public Library, still regularly stream concerts and discussions.
Here’s a small sampling of homegrown Connecticut streaming events to look out for:
Theater
TheaterWorks Hartford has been offering pre-taped streaming versions of each of the shows in its current seasons. Due to union rules, they can only be online for a limited time. TheaterWorks’ current offering, “Secondo” (a sequel to the 2012 hit “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti”) streams Aug. 21 through Sept. 4. Tickets are $20. theaterworkshartford.org.
ACT of Connecticut was one of the first professional (Equity union) theaters in the state to get back to live onstage shows after the COVID shutdown. During the shutdown, it is one of the first to create star-studded original programming. Its concert special “Live With Stephen Schwartz and Friends,” featuring the “Wicked” and “Pippin” and “Godspell” composer (and Ridgefield resident), remains online. A cabaret revue performed by performers who are masked when not singing, and stay distanced from each other, the show endures as a snapshot of how things felt and sounded in the early days of the pandemic. actofct.org/special-livestreams.
Goodspeed Musicals has left up dozens of episodes of several podcasts it produced during the pandemic, including Goodspeed artistic director Donna Lynn Hilton’s “In the (Home) Office.” Some of the webcasts have become newly relevant, such as the one with Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, whose hit musical “Six” will be coming to The Bushnell on tour during the 2022-23 theater season. goodspeed.org/from-home.
The Time’s Fool theater company, which is staging an outdoor non-virtual “Macbeth” outside Keeney Memorial Cultural Center in Wethersfield this week, has a holiday show from last year still posted on its website. It’s a one-man “A Christmas Carol” adapted and performed by Time’s Fool’s producing artistic director Wesley Broulik. timesfool.org/radiocast/blog-post-achristmascarol.
Art
The Wadsworth Atheneum has virtual versions of over a dozen art exhibitions. Most of them, including two that were in the Wadsworth’s MATRIX space for contemporary artists, closed a while ago and can’t be seen in person anymore. Others are ongoing exhibits such as “Cabinet of Art & Curiosity.” thewadsworth.org/explore/virtual-tours/.
Yale Art Gallery has been live streaming talks with artists and art historians. On Sept. 7 at 12:30 p.m., the gallery’s associate curator of African Art James Green will preview the exhibition “Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition.” Registration is at bit.ly/3zErJ04.
Books
Two of the busiest streamers in the state when it comes to book discussions are the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford and RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison.
Among the Twain House’s many upcoming online offerings are talks with authors Mansi Choksi (”The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India”) Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.; British librarian Richard Ovenden (“Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge”) Sept. 21 at noon; fantasy writer Alex Jennings’ “The Ballad of Perilous Graves” Sept. 27 at 7 p.m.; and novelist Sara Nović (whose novel “True Biz” is about a school for the deaf, leading to the discussion being ASL-interpreted) Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. marktwainhouse.org/events/.
RJ Julia’s upcoming virtual talks include mystery novelist Ann Cleeves Sept. 8 at 6 p.m.; award-winning British novelist Julian Barnes (”Flaubert’s Parrot” and the new “Elizabeth Finch”) Sept. 15 at 4 p.m.; and another Brit, mystery/thriller writer (and creator of TV’s “Foyle’s War”) Anthony Horowitz Nov. 15 at noon. Registration required. rjjulia.com/events. RJ Julia also maintains an archive of past talks on its YouTube channel.
Music
The Yale School of Music continues to live stream concerts and recitals. In the fall, student recitals and selected concerts will be live-streamed. music.yale.edu/livestream-norfolk.
TheaterWorks Hartford is streaming its self-produced concert from last year: pianist Todd Alsup performing “Elton Undressed,” a tribute to the glam-pop icon, through the end of this year. $20. theaterworkshartford.org.
The Hartt School at the University of Hartford is live streaming nearly 20 events between now and the end of the year at hartford.edu. These include concerts by the Hartt Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 and Oct. 14; and “Evening with Guitar and Harp” concerts on Oct. 6, Nov. 3 and Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.
