Dear Friends of the National Institute —
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shut down Broadway and live theatre all over the country. The very nature of live performance in front of large audiences seems to be at odds with what we know about how the COVID-19 virus spreads and what we can do to make in-person gatherings safe. But theatre is a vital and life-affirming industry which draws affection, admiration, and devotion from millions. How is the Great White Way coping with the pandemic shutdowns, and what does the future hold for live theatre performance?
Please join us IN ONE WEEK for a fascinating and informative virtual conversation featuring four experts at the center of live theatre: the President and CEO of Playbill, two Tony Award-winning musical theatre performers, and a Princeton University professor of theatre and American studies.
This promises to be a lively, entertaining, and insightful conversation among theatre insiders. We invite you to join us and ask your own questions about the future of Broadway.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
4:00 to 5:30 pm ET (US and Canada)
This forum is sponsored by the National Institute of Social Sciences and is free and open to the general public. In order to attend, you must click the link above to register in advance for the event. The event will be recorded for those who cannot attend it live.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Fred Larsen
President, Board of Trustees
Panelists:
Phil Birsh has been the President and CEO of Playbill Inc. and Playbill Interactive Media Inc. since 1994. Playbill has a monthly circulation of 4 million magazines per month in over 25 cities across America. Prior to joining Playbill, Mr. Birsh was an investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert for many years. Mr. Birsh is currently serving as Vice Chairman of the board of The Actors Fund and Treasurer of the Board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and he serves as an advisor to many other theatre related funds and foundations.
Nikki M. James is a performer in stage musicals, plays, and film. She received a Tony Award and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for best featured actress in a musical in The Book of Mormon. She has performed in Les Misérables and acted as Assistant Director for Once Upon This Island. Most recently, James starred in the New York City Center Encores! staged concert of The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin.
Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras. He received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime. Other notable Broadway shows include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly’s Last Jam, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Shuffle Along. In 2016 he was awarded his second Tony Award, the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Tony for his Charitable work with The Actors Fund. That same year Stokes was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Stacy Wolf is Professor of Theater and American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical and Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical, and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical. Wolf’s recent book, Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America, explores how the musical theatre repertoire finds new life at local and amateur venues across the country, including summer camps, high schools, community theatres, and afterschool programs.