Mint Theater to Stream Archival Recordings of PHILIP GOES FORTH & DAYS TO COME

Mint Theater Company will present the on-demand streaming of two archival recordings in honor of Mint's latest production at NY City Center Stage (ii), the World Premiere of one of its most exciting discoveries ever: Becomes a Woman, an unpublished and unproduced play by Betty Smith (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). Smith's 1930 never-before-seen drama, running now through March 18th.

Mint has been investing in creating professionally shot and edited full length archival videos since 2013. No Zoom boxes or Computer-Generated Imagery, these are professional quality, hi-definition, three-camera recordings of live performances, captured in the theater with live audiences. "If you've never seen a Mint show, I can assure you that the company's special qualities come through on video," said Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal. The price of admission is FREE. Available at Mint's virtual theater, MintTheater.org.

Beginning today, February 21st (through March 19th only!) Mint will be streaming their acclaimed 2013 production of Philip Goes Forth, the first-ever NY revival George Kelly's 1931 comedy.

Philip Goes Forth tells the story of a young man who rebels against his father and a career in the family business. He leaves home and ventures to New York to write plays without his father's support or blessing, but with this warning: "Don't imagine, whenever you get tired floating around up there in the clouds that you can drop right back into your place down here - that isn't the way things go!" George Kelly's comedy made its debut at Broadway's Biltmore Theater in January of 1931. New York was the city of dreams - and Kelly's humorous examination of one young dreamer remains an exquisite portrait of coming-of-age in modern America. Among the most distinctive of inter-war American dramatists writing for the commercial Broadway stage, Pulitzer Prize-winner George Kelly wrote ten full-length plays during a distinguished career in the New York theatre. Drawing comparisons to both Chekhov and Molière, the acerbic yet humane "Kelly Touch" blended the subtle details and rhythms of middle-class domestic life with the sharp contours of satire. Kelly crafted indelible American types in his classic "plays of character" The Torch Bearers, The Show-Off, and Craig's Wife, as well as underappreciated works like The Fatal Weakness, which Mint presented in 2014.

Terry Teachout, reviewing for The Wall Street Journal, wrote "Philip Goes Forth, directed by Jerry Ruiz...(is) a gem, mounted with the company's accustomed skill and resourcefulness. Were all this not managed with the lightest of touches, you might well suspect Kelly of trading exclusively in clichés. But don't be fooled, for he has a stack of aces tucked up his sleeve. ...by the time the curtain falls, you'll have been well and truly surprised, not just once but repeatedly."

Jerry Ruiz directed a cast that includes Cliff Bemis, Teddy Bergman, Bernardo Cubria, Jennifer Harmon, Carole Healey, Christine Toy Johnson, Natalie Kuhn, Brian MacDonald, Jennifer McVey and Rachel Moulton.

Following Philip Goes Forth will be Lillian Hellman's Days to Come, beginning streaming March 6th (through April 2nd).

"Days To Come turns out to be a gripping piece of storytelling, one whose failure and subsequent obscurity make no sense at all. This is the 14th Mint Theater revival that I've reviewed since 2005, and the 14th time I've raved about the results. Such unfailing excellence merits much wider recognition. If you've yet to see what the Mint can do, start here!" said Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal.

Lillian Hellman's second play, Days to Come, is a family drama set against the backdrop of labor strife in a small Ohio town which threatens to tear apart both town and family. "It's the story of innocent people on both sides who are drawn into conflict and events far beyond their comprehension," Hellman said in an interview before Days to Come opened in 1936. "It's the saga of a man who started something he cannot stop..."

J.R. Sullivan directed a cast that features Mary Bacon, Janie Brookshire, Larry Bull, Chris Henry Coffey, Dan Daily, Ted Deasy, Roderick Hill, Betsy Hogg, Kim Martin-Cotton, Geoffrey Allen Murphy, and Evan Zes.

"No other theater company in America has a more consistently high record of artistic quality. 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" - Teachout (Wall Street Journal, 1/21/21). 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 Streaming, go to minttheater.org. The price of admission is FREE.

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