The New Works Virtual Festival
Kevin Pollack has been really busy in the days of COVID-19. There is the hit music video ”Holiday” on his YouTube channel that has been receiving significant recognition for both content and pure enjoyment.
With Thomas Eliot Squires, Pollack hosts the popular series Zooming the Movies on Facebook. Tonight’s offering is Miracle on 34th Street, a live benefit for the Actors Fund starring John Ruebenstein and featuring Megan Cavanaugh, David Girolmo and many others. The Grinch, A Christmas Story and Love Actually are in the works for the weeks ahead.
Pollack’s new album, The Other Side, will be available soon on Spotify. It’s a vigorous blend of 80’s retro and pop that should be on everyone’s Christmas download list.
But, Pollack’s roots are in the theatre and it is that artistic platform that is home for one of the most ambitious – and genuinely groundbreaking – virtual ventures of our sequestered time. The New Works Virtual Festival, founded by Pollack with actors Bart Shatto and Jim Auld, is running nightly through December 25, benefits The Actors Fund and showcases established and rising playwrights who receive a first-class virtual reading by an A-list roster of actors. The series has Chaz Ebert among its’ producers.
The Festival began in earnest on December 5 with “Oscar and Walt,” by Donald Steven Olson, a play about the meeting of Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Readings in recent weeks included “Secret Hour” by Jenny Stafford, “We the People” by Harrison Zeiberg.
Coming up tonight: “The Wickham Way” by Rachel Rubin Ladutke with songs by Lisa Brigantino that is set at a Vermont bed and breakfast during a paralyzing snowstorm with a mix of fascinating characters gathered together for the memorial of an influential and socially-forward mentor.
If you happen to be in Vermont in a paralyzing snowstorm—which most of Vermont is right now—or anywhere else for that matter, you should certainly tune in to this or any of the other free readings in the series. While you are there, support the effort of these creatives with a generous gift to The Actors Fund. For a complete list of plays and times, visit the Facebook live page.
The New Works Virtual Festival The twenty selected works, chosen from over 700 submissions, cover a broad spectrum of themes. Each reading includes a scrolling copy of the script in the lower third of the screen so the viewer can read along for themselves. The use of a narrator for stage directions varies from play to play. These are zoom readings of projects in various stages of development that are performed and presented extremely well.
Like and subscribe to The New Works Virtual Festival on Facebook and YouTube as well as: @newworksvirtualfestival on Instagram and @NWVfestival on Twitter for announcements and information. Use the hashtags #NWVFest and #NewWorksVirtualFestival for all related content. The Festival continues through December 25, 2020.
Read More: Jonathan Mandell Feature 12|5|2020
Support the Actors Fund by visiting: www.actorsfund.org/nwvfest
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