April 10, 2019
by Patrick O’Shea, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
You can’t go to them, so they’ll come to you.
While performing arts centers across the state have had to lower their curtains for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown, more and more are redirecting their spotlights to online programming.
Today, Friday, April 10, for example, the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown will livestream a concert by the New York-based jazz duo Acute Inflections at 12:30 p.m. on its Facebook page. The Union County Performing Art Center in Rahway will present an UnCancelled Music Festival with a lineup of four live musical acts starting at 5 p.m.
Other major entertainment sources, such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, are delving into their archives to post past shows for your at-home viewing/listening convenience.
Here’s a look at some of the online entertainment being offered:
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark has launched “NJPAC in Your Living Room,” an online portal that promises to provide live original content and a curated collection of past performances, children’s programming and workshops.
“You can’t come to NJPAC because you’re staying home to ‘flatten the curve’ and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our community,” notes NJPAC executive director David Rodriguez on the venue’s website. “All of us who work at the arts center are doing the same thing. I am at this moment sitting in my family room with a laptop, a diet Coke and three rescue dogs, trying to figure out our next steps. And here’s the first one: You can’t come to NJPAC right now, but we can bring the magic of NJPAC to you, right here.”
The venue daily is posting new dance and music performances, children’s shows and video versions of its various educational programs — plus offerings “from our partners,” a roundup of links to other entertainment sites, such as Ailey All Access, WBGO jazz radio and NPR Tiny Desk Concerts.
Daily updates can be found on NJPAC’s social media channels.
The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown encourages patrons to “stay engaged with the arts through the power of technology” and has established “Virtual Arts” to offer live concerts and performances from its archives. Today, Friday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. will feature a live show by Acute Inflections, a jazz duo from New York. On Friday, April 17, country music singer-songwriter Lauren Davidson will play a live set.
“Virtual Arts” also gives a comprehensive catalog of links to online streaming events and resources from other arts and cultural outlets.
The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway has taken a somewhat different approach, teaming with the Uncancelled Music Festival initiative, a virtual live stage platform “that brings together musicians, fans and venues from around the globe affected by the Covid-19 crisis for a virtual concert experience to help sustain the music industry during this trying and unprecedented time.”
“Concertgoers” actually sign up, create an account with at balance of at least $5, then choose and “get tickets” for any of the shows they want to watch. Each stage costs a minimum of 10 cents to enter, but the suggested donation is $5. There are chat sessions with the musicians following their performances and you even have the option of feeding their tip jar.
Today’s bill will present prog rock bassist and composer Julie Slick at 5 p.m.; acoustic indie band Between Dreams at 6 p.m.; blues artist Cristina Perruccio at 7 p.m.; and prog rock band Mile Marker Zero at 8 p.m.
There are also Uncancelled Music Fest concerts scheduled on UCPAC’s site for Saturday and Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn on Thursday opened the first act on what will be a weekly live stream of choice episodes from its “Straight from the Paper Mill Playhouse Vaults” symposium series on the Paper Mill Facebook page.
Scheduled to webcast 7 p.m. Thursdays through June 11, the first stream offered a Stephen Schwartz career retrospective with performances by Stephanie Mills, Adrian Zmed, Capathia Jenkins and “Children of Eden” cast members.
The topic for April 14 will be “The Creators of ‘Applause’ on the Set in 1996,” featuring Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams with performances of highlights from the musical.
McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton has set up “Mcarter@Home” on its website to mount “classes, conversations, interviews and opportunities to participate.” Today, Friday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m.,, it will have a class on “Jazz 101: A Beginner’s Guide,” taught by the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s director of education resources. A new session of the theater’s Shakespeare Kids Reading Group is slated to begin 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 7, and run for five weeks, and there are archived posts of “Inside the Mind of Beowulf Boritt,” showcasing the theater designer’s work and “The Princeton and Slavery Plays,” a study of seven commissioned short plays examining how the history of Princeton University is entwined in the institution of slavery.
The Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank and Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center in Newark also have stocked their websites with arts-themed virtual classes and workshops for aspiring homebody performers.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra had to unstring the bulk of its current season when the coronavirus crisis hit, but urges classical music lovers to visit the special “Watch & Listen” section on its website to tune in to archived broadcasts of concerts. Viewers can watch performances and other video features and listen to archived WQXR and WWFM broadcast of archived orchestra concerts.
