Trinity Rep Launches New Digital Programming for Winter and Spring

Trinity Rep is expanding its free digital programming offerings with new play workshops and an expanded America Too program that examines our community's response to the events of the past year through discussion and performance. In the coming weeks, The Writer's Room and America Too: Reckoning and Resilience launch five-part monthly series that run through the spring. Access is free for both programs, but registration is required. More information is available at trinityrep.com/shows.

Trinity Rep's initial online programming series, Your Half Hour Call with Curt, a Facebook live talk show, began in April and ended in December with 18 episodes of Artistic Director Curt Columbus engaging in lively discussion with actors, educators, and other theater makers. The organization's next digital programming effort, A Christmas Carol Online was its most expansive. The on-demand streaming video was available for free December 17 through January 10 and reached nearly 200,000 registered viewers in all 50 states and 37 countries on six continents. In addition to free online programming, the organization continues to offer online classes for K-12 and adult students.

America Too: Reckoning and Resilience marks the continuation of Trinity Rep's partnership with Providence Public Library, which is co-producing this year's program. The two organizations previously partnered on Context & Conversation, a discussion series inspired by the theater's productions. Currently on hiatus, that program will resume when in-person performances recommence.

The Arthur P. Solomon and Sally E. Lapides Artistic Director Curt Columbus remarked, "While we remain optimistic that we will resume producing in-person plays and events later in 2021, we are embracing the opportunities that technology present. Programs like The Writer's Room and America Too help us continue to stimulate dialogue within our community, and thanks to the accessibility of digital programming, we are reaching audiences locally, nationally, and worldwide who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to engage with us."

THE WRITER'S ROOM

Each episode of this free five-part series will provide an inside look at a different new play currently in development. Every world premiere production begins as an idea in the mind of the playwright and then moves to words on a page. But long before any opening night, those words are spoken aloud by actors during one or more workshops during which the playwright makes discoveries and refines the script. "The Writer's Room" audiences will witness a part of this process, including discussions with the creative team moderated by Curt Columbus, artistic director, and have the opportunity to pose questions of the group. Access to these live, online events is free, but reservations are required, and space is limited.

In the first episode of the series on February 9, the featured play will be Anna K. by Deborah Salem Smith (Boots on the Ground, Love Alone, and Faithful Cheaters). She will be joined by director Jessie Austrian and actors Rachel Christopher, Nikki Massoud, and Rachael Warren as they explore Smith's contemporary re-imagining of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

Future plays will be announced for episodes scheduled for March 9, April 13, May 11, and June 8. All events begin at 7:30 pm ET and run for about one hour. Space may be reserved for individual episodes at trinityrep.com/newplays.

AMERICA TOO: RECKONING AND RESILIENCE

America Too: Reckoning and Resilience marks the sixth year of the America Too initiative. This year's expanded five-part online program combines elements of the public discussion series Context & Conversation with the America Too experience, which devises performance pieces from our communities' stories and experiences around a specific theme.

America Too: Reckoning and Resilience combines theater, music, and art with stories from our community, seeking to catalyze community dialogue around the many challenges and potential opportunities of this particular moment, as we confront the aftermath of a polarizing election season, observe the year's anniversary of the arrival of the pandemic in Rhode Island, and reckon with the structural racism and anti-Black violence that continues to rock our communities.

The series kicks off at 7:30 pm ET on January 28 with a look back at the origins of the America Too program and the legacy on which this year's project builds. Subsequent episodes on February 25, March 25, and April 22 will explore education, health, and activism, with a culminating performance on May 27.

Each episode will be anchored by series hosts and creators Michelle Cruz, Christina Bevilacqua, and Joe Wilson, Jr. Michelle Cruz is Trinity Rep's director of community engagement; Christina Bevilacqua is Providence Public Library's programs and exhibitions director and Trinity Rep's conversationalist-in-residence; Joe Wilson, Jr. is a member of Trinity Rep's resident acting company, the creator of the America Too initiative, and also serves as an assistant professor of theatre and dance at Wheaton College and an adjunct professor of theatre at Emerson College.

Access to these streaming events is free, but reservations are required. Space may be reserved at trinityrep.com/americatoo2021. Unlimited viewing is available to registered viewers for two weeks following the premieres, after which period the videos will be publicly available.

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