DO MORE.
VIRTUAL PLAY READINGS
A BENEFIT SERIES to raise funds and awareness for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and organizations fighting for equity and justice.
Do More
BEDLAM
presents
DO MORE.
A Benefit Reading Series
for #BlackLivesMatter
On Tuesday June 9th 2020, BEDLAM launched a bimonthly Reading Series in an effort to raise funds and awareness for the #BLACKLIVESMATTER movement and associated organizations working toward eliminating race-based discrimination. We have pledged that all proceeds will go directly toward these efforts.
2020 CALENDAR
PAST: SIGN UP CLOSED
The tragedy of Richard II
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Zachary Elkind
Tuesday, June 9th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
NATIONAL BAIL FUND NETWORK (raised $3220)
Shakespeare’s most intimate history play charts Richard II’s growth into maturity and poetry as he loses everything.
Cast: EDMUND LEWIS, PAUL LAZAR, RYAN QUINN, SHIRINE BABB, LISA BIRNBAUM, AUNDRIA BROWN, JOHN TERRY, GALEN MOLK, CAROLINE GROGAN, VIOLETA PICAYO, SIMON SCHAITKIN
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
The Long Christmas Ride Home
Written by Paula Vogel
Directed by Violeta Picayo
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020
6:30pm EST: Live Music by Brandy Butler
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
THE AUDRE LORDE PROJECT (raised $2935)
Paula Vogel breaks open the American family play in this fractured, beautiful exploration of a family of five in crisis.
Cast: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Kathryn Tkel, Katie Hartke, Tramell Tillman, Maggie Adams McDowell, EDMUND LEWIS
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Entertaining Mr. Sloane
Written by Joe Orton
Directed by Annabel Capper
Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music by George Stass
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
Equal Justice Initiative (raised $1890)
Comedy is the greasy underbelly of psychopathy in Joe Orton’s sexy, biting satire of middle-class England in the swinging ‘60s.
Cast: Nigel Gore, Annabel Capper, Dan Amboyer, Maurice Jones
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Coriolanus
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Nathan Malin
Tuesday, July 21st, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music by Doug Waterman
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (RAISED $2432)
Shakespeare’s rarely-seen Roman history is a taut, brutal reminder that a society founded on war can never be at peace with itself.
Cast: Tina Packer, Vasile Flutur, David Keohane, Arash Moktar, Khadija Bangoura, Paul Lazar, Maurice Parent, Nigel Gore, Julia Ty Goldberg
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Don Juan in Hell
Written by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Randolph Curtis Rand
RESCHEDULED: Tuesday, August 11, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music by Joshua Fried (RADIO WONDERLAND LIVE)
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
Southern Poverty Law Center
Bedlam loves George Bernard Shaw, and this one-act — originally Act III of Shaw’s “Man and Superman” — is Shaw at his purest: his gift for language and comedy never fails, even in Hell.
Cast: LISA WOLPE, RANDOLPH CURTIS RAND, SHIRINE BABB, ERIC TUCKER
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
China Dreams or The Conservation of Parity
Written by Stefani Kuo
Directed by Nicholas Polonio
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
7:30pm EST: Music
8:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
INTEGRATE NYC
This stunning new play from Stefani Kuo traces the life of Wu Chien-Shiung, an overlooked Chinese-American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, in the first new play in our reading series.
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
TROUBLE IN MIND
Written by Alice Childress
Directed by Ryan Quinn
Tuesday, September 1st, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
BLACK WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS
Alice Childress’s pioneering play is at once a backstage satire and an indictment of the white theater establishment, illuminating the ways that Black artists struggle to find authenticity in the theater.
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
ROMEO & JULIET
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Eric Tucker
Tuesday, September 15th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
COMMUNITIES UNITED FOR POLICE REFORM
Cast: NIGEL GORE & TINA PACKER, AS ROMEO & JULIET
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
HEDDA GABLER
Written by Henrik Ibsen
Directed by Zachary Elkind
Tuesday, September 29th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
ARTISTS STRIVING TO END POVERTY
A woman at war with society’s expectations, Hedda Gabler refuses to play by anyone else’s rules in Henrik Ibsen’s revolutionary play.
Cast: Shirine Babb as Hedda
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Othello
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Annabel Capper
Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
THE OKRA PROJECT
Shakespeare’s Venetian tragedy is as devastating as it is intimate, exploring the ways racism, jealousy, fear, violence, and trust spiral out of control.
Cast: Ryan Quinn, Katie Hartke, Eric tucker, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Violeta Picayo
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
DUTCHMAN
Written by Amiri Baraka
Directed by Ryan Quinn
Tuesday, October 27th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
PRINCESS JANAE PLACE
A chance encounter on a subway between a white woman and a Black man slowly reveals itself as an allegory for all of American racism in Amiri Baraka’s shattering play.
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
The machine stops
Written by E.M. Forster
Adapted & Directed by David Keohane
Tuesday, November 10th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
CAMPAIGN ZERO
Director David Keohane presents his original adaptation of E.M. Forster’s short story: a science-fiction dystopia with an uncomfortable resemblance to our own world.
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Titus Andronicus
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Randolph Curtis Rand
Tuesday, November 24th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
THE INNOCENCE PROJECT
Shakespeare’s goriest play verges into horror-movie territory as it traces the way violence corrodes an entire society, until no one is untouched.
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
TBA
Written by TBA
Directed by Violeta Picayo
Tuesday, december 8th, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
BLACK THEATRE NETWORK
Cast: TBA
LOCATION: ZOOM & Facebook Live
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Written by Edward Albee
Directed by Annabel Capper
Tuesday, december 22nd, 2020
6:30pm EST: Music
7:00pm EST: Reading
Benefit Reading to support:
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS CAMP
A quiet evening’s nightcap becomes a fight to the death in Albee’s masterpiece.
