Max von Essen, Todd Cerveris and More Star in YOURS UNFAITHFULLY Stream Presented by Mint Theater Company

Mint Theater Company will continue the highly popular Silver Lining Streaming Series with the on-demand streaming of the three-camera archival recording (filmed in HD!) of Yours Unfaithfully by Miles Malleson directed by Jonathan Bank beginning Monday, March 22nd, and continuing through May 16th. The price of admission is free.

Closed captioning is now available for all of Mint's upcoming streaming productions.

Women Without Men by Hazel Ellis has been extended through April 18th. Katie Roche will continue streaming through March 28th only.

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.

Yours Unfaithfully is an insightful, intelligent and exceptionally intimate peek behind the closed doors of an open marriage. Stephen and Anne, blissfully happy for eight years, are committed to living up to their ideals. When Stephen, a writer who isn't writing, begins to sink into a funk of unproductive moodiness, Anne encourages him to seek out a fresh spark. Can their marriage survive uncompromising generosity, sacrifice and love? "The splendid cast of five inhabits the characters with passion and grace. In bringing neglected works to light, the Mint performs a great trick: modern audiences experience what it must have been like to see a play in another era, when careful listening was expected - and rewarded," said Ken Marks in The New Yorker.

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. Upcoming full length archival recordings streaming on demand will include A Picture of Autumn by N.C Hunter, directed by Gus Kaikkonen (3/29 to 5/23); and The Fatal Weakness by George Kelly, directed by Jesse Marchese (5/17 to 6/13), all at Mint's virtual theater, MintTheater.org. Women Without Men, now extended through April 18th, explores the clash of conflicting natures and petty competitions that erupt amongst the cloistered teaching staff of an all-girls boarding school. Jenn Thompson directed an all-female cast that included Mary Bacon, Joyce Cohen, Shannon Harrington, Kate Middleton, Aedin Moloney, Alexa Shae Niziak, Kellie Overbey, Dee Pelletier, Beatrice Tulchin, Emily Walton, and Amelia White.

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.

Photo credit: Richard Termine

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