Metropolitan Playhouse Continues Screened Readings With IN THE SEASON by Langdon Mitchell

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse continues its hit run of a free "screened" readings with IN THE SEASON, a one-act play by Langdon Mitchell, via live stream video, with talkback to follow, on August 1st, 2020 at 8 PM, EST.

Edward Fariburne and Sybil March may have found true love, but the rigors and misunderstandings of the London Social Season may kill it before it blooms. A delicate and surprisingly modern tale, striking for its pithy dialogue and its subtle characterizations of two people on the edge of sophistication, hoping to hold on to the innocence of youth.

Discussion following the reading includes audience participation.

The reading will be directed by Alex Roe and features Tess Frazer, Timothy Goodwin, and Benjamin Russell. Backgrounds are painted by artist Pamela Lawton.

Running Time: 30 minutes
Talkback to follow, including audience questions via Zoom and YouTube chat

Available via Zoom and YouTube at www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/watchvpreading

All links available at:
www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse

LANGDON ELWYN MITCHELL (1862-1935), American poet and playwright, is best known for Becky Sharp (1899) and The New York Idea (1906, produced by Metropolitan Playhouse in 1997). Educated at St. Paul's, then Harvard and Columbia, he was admitted to the New York Bar in 1886. However, writing poetry and drama took precedence, and he never practiced law. Among his books are Sylvian And Other Poems (1884), Poems (1894), Love In The Backwoods (1896), and Understanding America (1927). However, his playwriting gave him most success. In the Season, was his first, produced at the St. James Theater in London in 1893 in an evening of three short works. In 1899, Becky Sharp (a dramatization of Vanity Fair) brought him greater attention, while 1906's The New York Idea, a play about divorce, was his most successful. Mitchell was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in February 1908. From 1928, following his participation in a series of lectures by a number of playwrights at th
e University of Pennsylvania, which was published as The Art Of Playwriting, he became Professor of Playwriting there. He retired from that position in 1930.

ARTISTS' RELIEF
The Playhouse's virtual readings serve to help us compensate performing artists, so particularly hurt during this long "pause."
Information about the theater's ARTISTS RELIEF FUND may be found at
www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/covidaid

The VIRTUAL PLAYHOUSE began on March 28, 2020, and has been simultaneously broadcast on New York's Pacifica Radio Station WBAI, 99.5 FM since April 11. Exploring the possibilities of "remote" ensemble, Metropolitan has pushed the envelope of Zoom broadcasts, with increasingly sophisticated virtual settings and sound design. Each reading is enhanced by conversation with the artists and a guest scholar for an hour-long live entertainment every Saturday night. Reaching an audience across the country and around the globe, the presentation of the forgotten one-act plays is an ideal way to pursue the theater's mission exploring America's diverse theatrical history.

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