Mint Theater's SUMMER STOCK STREAMING FESTIVAL Begins Today

Mint Theater Company's Summer Stock Streaming Festival, featuring archival recordings of three past productions, begins today, Monday July 6th. All three productions will be available through July 19th only from the Mint website: MintTheater.org. This festival of Mint works includes a domestic drama from America (The Fatal Weakness by George Kelly, directed by Jesse Marchese); high-brow silliness from England (The New Morality by Harold Chapin, directed by Jonathan Bank); and a suspenseful comedy featuring an all-female cast from Ireland (Women Without Men by Hazel Ellis, directed by Jenn Thompson).

Mint has been investing in creating professionally shot and edited full length archival videos since 2013. These videos are shot during live performances with three high-definition cameras, and edited to create a broadcast quality, intimate and enjoyable experience of Mint programming.

The Fatal Weakness tells the story of society woman Ollie Espenshade, who, after 28 years of marriage is still an incurable romantic (her fatal weakness). Perhaps discovering that her husband is a lying cheat will cure her? "A smart, polished not-quite-comedy about the high price of adultery whose upper-crust characters are unlikable and whose moral-if you care to call it that-is uncomfortable. Though no one mentions World War II, not even in passing, Mr. Kelly was surely out to show how it triggered a convulsion in American mores, which gives the laughter an astringent sting... As usual at the Mint, the acting and staging are smoothly impeccable...Vicki R. Davis's sitting-room set looks like the kind of thing you'd see on Broadway if Broadway still did plays like this," proclaimed The Wall Street Journal. Jesse Marchese directs a cast that features Cliff Bemis, Cynthia Darlow, Kristin Griffith, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Patricia Kilgarriff, and Victoria Mack.

Set aboard a houseboat on a fashionable reach of the Thames in 1911, The New Morality tells the story of how the brazen Betty Jones restores dignity to her household and harmony to her marriage, by losing her temper and making a scene. "The script combines a jigger or two of Harley Granville Barker, a measure of Shaw, a dash of Wilde and stirs as needed... The writing is charming and finely observed...The direction, by the Mint's artistic director, Jonathan Bank, is appealing and apposite. The acting is adept, with particularly impressive turns by Brenda Meaney as Betty and Ned Noyes as the husband of her putative rival," declared The New York Times. Jonathan Bank directs a cast that features Christian Campbell (best known for playing the role of Gabriel in the contemporary gay film classic Trick opposite Tori Spelling; he also played the lead character of Jimmy Harper in the original Los Angeles and Off-Broadway productions of Reefer Madness: The Musical and in the Showtime television adaptation, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, opposite his sister Neve Campbell; Christian can currently be seen as Richard Brune in HBO's second season of "True Detective"); Brenda Meaney (recently appeared in Roundabout's production of Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard and later starred as Flora in a remount of that production for A.C.T.; she is the winner of a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for her performance in Venus in Fur at A.C.T., and she starred in Caryl Churchill's Owners at Yale Repertory Theatre; on television, she appeared in AMC's "Hell on Wheels" opposite her father, Colm Meaney); Ned Noyes (most recently appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-nominated production of You Can't Take it With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart; television credits include the recurring role of Hank in "Boardwalk Empire" and Simon in "Alpha House;" he has previously appeared Off-Broadway in Mint Theater's productions of Love Goes to Press, So Help Me God!, and The Fifth Column); Michael Frederic (recently appeared Off-Broadway in Bill W and Dr. Bob at the Soho Playhouse; television credits include featured roles on "Royal Pains" and "The Men Who Built America"); Douglas Rees (recently played Doc in the International European Tour of West Side Story; he has appeared in Mint Theater's productions of Donogoo, What the Public Wants, A Little Journey, and Mary Broome; he appeared on television in "30 Rock"); Clemmie Evans (can be seen on television in the current season (Season 5) of FX's "Louie;" she also appeared opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the film Freedom; Clemmie makes her Off-Broadway debut in The New Morality); and Kelly McCready (also makes her Off-Broadway debut in The New Morality. She is a graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre program).

A workplace drama laced with biting humor, Hazel Ellis's Women Without Men is set in the teacher's lounge of a private girls boarding school in Ireland in the 1930's. Jean Wade is an enthusiastic young teacher new to the school, where she soon finds herself popular with the students and at odds with her quarrelsome colleagues-especially the antagonistic Miss Connor. When Miss Connor's life's work-a history of "beautiful acts" through the ages-is found torn to shreds, Jean is the most likely suspect. With the evidence mounting against her and animosity in the air, will Jean fight for her career, or will she be beaten by the pettiness and jealousy that thrives in the school's cloistered environment? Jenn Thompson (Abundance, The Late Christopher Bean, The Eccentricities of A Nightingale) directs an all-female cast that includes Mary Bacon, Joyce Cohen, Shannon Harrington, Kate Middleton, Aedin Moloney, Alexa Shae Niziak, Kellie Overbey, Dee Pelletier, Beatrice Tulchin, Emily Walton, and Amelia White. Women Without Men was also designed by women: Vicki R. Davis will provide scenic design; Martha Halley, costume design; Traci Klainer Polimeni, lighting design; and Jane Shaw, sound design.

Mint's production received five Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Revival, Best Director (Jenn Thompson) and Outstanding Supporting Actress (Kellie Overbey). "How does the Mint do it? Only a couple of years after it resurrected the work of the forgotten Irish playwright Teresa Deevy, the company presents Women Without Men, by Hazel Ellis, a contemporary of Deevy's, also seemingly lost to history. And, once again, we have to ask: Who is Hazel Ellis? Why did we not know her? Why has this information been kept from us? This production shows the Mint doing what it does best: finding long-lost works that remain remarkably stage worthy today," said Lighting & Sound America.

"Thank heaven for the unwavering commitment of Jonathan Bank, the theatrical archaeologist whose Mint Theater Company unearths long-forgotten plays and imbues them with new life," declared The New York Times in response to a recent Mint production. Terry Teachout writing about Mint's production of Conflict in The Wall Street Journal said "I've reviewed 13 Mint productions since 2005, each one a gem-but it's still worth saying yet again that no New York-based theater company has a better batting average. The invisible hero of Conflict is, of course, Jonathan Bank, the Mint's producing artistic director. It's a wonder how he manages to track down so many plays that both deserve and richly re-pay a second hearing. Mr. Bank is one of a handful of theater artists in America whose name is an absolute guarantee of quality, and Conflict is further proof of his perfect taste." 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 Summer Stock Streaming Festival, go to https://minttheater.org/current-production/production-summer-stock-streaming-festival/. Remember, the festival begins today, July 6th, and the price of admission is FREE.

You must send an email to streaming@minttheater.org with "Mint" in the subject line to receive a password for the Mint's Summer Stock Streaming Festival.

For more information, including photos and videos of previous Mint productions, visit minttheater.org.

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