Featuring Todd Cerveris (South Pacific), Mikaela Izquierdo (Cyrano de Bergerac), Elisabeth Gray (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and more.
Yours Unfaithfully by Miles Malleson directed by Jonathan Bank is available on demand through June 14th only! Part of the Mint Theater Company's Silver Lining Streaming Series of on-demand streaming of the three-camera archival recordings (filmed in HD!). The price of admission is FREE. NO PASSWORD REQUIRED! And now, closed captioning is available for all of Mint's upcoming streaming productions.
Yours Unfaithfully was published in 1933 but never produced, making Mint's production a very belated World Premiere. Mint Artistic Director Jonathan Bank directs a cast that features Todd Cerveris (South Pacific, Twentieth Century - Broadway), - Mikaela Izquierdo (Cyrano de Bergerac - Broadway; The New York Idea, Gabriel - Atlantic Theater), Elisabeth Gray (Breakfast at Tiffany's - Broadway, "Understudies"), Stephen Schnetzer (Broadway - Wit, The Goat, "Another World"), and Tony & Drama Desk Award nominee Max von Essen (An American In Paris, Anastasia, Falsettos, Evita). Mint Theater previously scored a success with Malleson's Conflict, "an outstanding play, and the Mint's production... was and is platinum-plated," said Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal on October 22nd, 2020.
William Miles Malleson (1888-1969) is remembered, if at all, as a character actor on stage and screen "who had a line in nitwits in which he was unrivaled," such as the Sultan in The Thief of Bagdad (which he also wrote), the hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (with Sir Alec Guinness, 1949) and Rev. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (Edith Evans, 1952). But as the author of numerous plays charged with the passion of reform, he never enjoyed the kind of popular success he had as an actor. The Stage and Television Today published a warm testimonial at his death in 1969: "Malleson was an actor of distinction, an artist of imagination and depth, whose best characterizations, especially in Shakespeare, were among the treasures of our theatre for many years...He excelled in comedy that came from guileless but not silly men. His nit-wits had souls as well as stupidities. What might have been merely grotesque was never so, it was lit by human feeling. His work in the theatre spanned nearly sixty years, from the time he made his debut at Liverpool Playhouse under Basil Dean in 1911, in Justice. He worked with Granville Barker and J.B. Fagan, with Playfair, Gielgud and Olivier, at the Old Vic in London and Bristol; in the West End and in the provinces. His acting, within its range, was unrivaled for effect, interest and significance, and he contributed valuable work as a translator of Moliere, as a writer, notably with The Fanatics and Six Men of Dorset-with H. Brooks-and as an influence for all that was intended to be of value to the theatre, irrespective of profit or fame."
Mint has been investing in creating professionally shot and edited full length, three-camera archival recordings filmed in HD since 2013. No Zoom boxes or Computer Generated Imagery - these are professional quality, high-definition recordings of live performances, captured in the theater with live audiences. Mint's recordings are meant for private viewing only and may not be screened for any other purpose. These recordings have been made available in partnership with the employees represented by Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, Actors' Equity Association and United Scenic Artists. Mint is proud to pay our artists.
"One of the few welcome surprises of 2020 was the announcement by New York's Mint Theater that it had spent the preceding seven years taping broadcast-ready three-camera archival videos of its off-Broadway productions, and that in lieu of live performances during the pandemic, it would stream these videos for free. As regular readers of this column know, the Mint specializes in small-house revivals of unjustly forgotten 20th-century plays. I have been reviewing one or two of its shows most seasons for the past decade and a half, and each one I've seen has been well chosen and flawlessly acted and staged. No other theater company in America has a more consistently high record of artistic quality. The Mint will be webcasting five more shows between now and June, and my plan is to watch and review them all. The company's motto is 'Lost Plays Found Here,' and I have relished all of the 14 scripts, none of which I had previously seen or read, that Jonathan Bank, the Mint's producing artistic director, has exhumed and brought to my attention since 2005. To be able to see such shows in your home, especially now, is an amazing, heart-easing luxury-one that won't cost you a cent," wrote Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2021.
The "Silver" of the Silver Lining Streaming Series also refers to the Mint's Silver Anniversary: twenty-five years of unearthing and preserving forgotten plays. Remaining full length archival recordings streaming on demand are A Picture of Autumn by N.C Hunter, directed by Gus Kaikkonen and The Fatal Weakness by George Kelly, directed by Jesse Marchese, both available on demand until June 27th only, at Mint's virtual theater, MintTheater.org.
Mint was awarded an OBIE Award for "combining the excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition" and a special Drama Desk Award for "unearthing, presenting and preserving forgotten plays of merit."
To learn more about Mint's On Demand Streaming, go to minttheater.org. The price of admission is FREE. NO PASSWORD REQUIRED!
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