The National Endowment of the Arts awarded $35,000 to Baltimore Center Stage to support the theater’s production of a play about climate change and man-made extinction.
Baltimore Center Stage received a 2021 Art Works Grant, which it will use to produce “A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction,” written by Baltimore playwright Miranda Rose Hall — who is the daughter of WYPR’s “Midday” host Tom Hall.
The play, directed by Taibi Magar, focuses on the Zero Omissions Theater Company as they try to get the audience of their own play to wake up to the threat of climate change. People will be able to stream “A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction” starting April 15.
Annalisa Dias, Baltimore Center Stage’s Director of Artistic Partnerships and Innovation, called the play “a beautiful and necessary meditation on the incomprehensible magnitude of the climate crisis.”
Dias added that the grant from the National Endowment of the Arts will support the play’s message and showcase the work of Baltimore artists.
“This critical funding from the NEA will help us bring this important piece to our virtual stage, and continue our commitment to supporting artists with connections to Baltimore,” Dias said in a statement. “I’m thrilled for Baltimore Center Stage to deepen our relationship with Miranda Rose Hall on the world premiere of this project.”
The National Endowment for the Arts will award nearly $25 million worth of grants to 1,073 projects across the country as part of their first round of fiscal year 2021 arts project funding, according to a press release.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support this project from Baltimore Center Stage,” Arts Endowment Acting Chairman Ann Ellers said in a statement. “Baltimore Center Stage is among the arts organizations across the country that have demonstrated creativity, excellence, and resilience during this very challenging year.”
Hall’s play was originally supposed to be presented from March 25-April 25 in Baltimore Center Stage’s Head Theater, which had been reconfigured for physical distancing.
But the theater is now presenting all four shows in its Mainstage Series virtually.
The theater kicked off its Mainstage Series in January with its world premiere of “The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks and Curls.”
“A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction” will be the next show in the series, followed by “The Swindlers: A True-ish Tall Tale” and “The Garden.”
Audience members can purchase a virtual pass that will allow them to view all shows in the Mainstage Series for two weeks after each performance date.
Hall’s play is intended to be an “interactive, communal” experience. With the production now being presented online, the theater is working with Hall to change the script and adapt the performance for a virtual audience, Center Stage communications manager Taylor Lamb told Baltimore Fishbowl.
But is it Art? Does anyone remember the SNL skit with Dan Ackroyd called ‘Bad Ballet’?