As I noted here the other day, I've written periodically about attending the wonderful Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum outdoors in the Topanga Forest. This is also where Billie Eilish performed her recent world premiere video, "My Future," for the DNC Convention. The Theatricum Botanicum has just announced a month of special online Zoom events -- all free -- that they will be putting on over the next month, intended no doubt to involve the public to do some fundraising since they've had to shut their performance season down. First up is a fascinating sounding event, "An Evening of Mummers and Mystery." This is a small, independent film that Will Geer made In 1974 with other original Theatricum company members. As they describe it, the film "recreated the experience of a troop of mummers performing a mystery play typical of The Middle Ages in Europe. This rarely seen film, full of familiar faces and screened now for the first time in nearly five decades, illustrates how early acting companies in the 1400s helped give way to the modern theater as we know it." Here's a trailer for the film -- clearly low-budget, but just as clearly rambunctious and lively. I did recognize a few performers, like Will Geer, of course, and also -- at the 50-second mark -- Dana Elcar and Arthur Malet (a longtime character actor who, among many other things, played the banker 'Mr. Dawes, Jr.' in Mary Poppins, the character who rehires Mr. Banks at the end, as everyone sings "Let's Go Fly a Kite), as well as, I think, Joyce Van Patten (who memorably played a killer in an episode of Columbo), along with some others I recognized but couldn't quite place in the few moments on screen, , but this is just a brief trailer, so I look forward to seeing the many others . If you want to see the film, which is free, you have to RSVP first, and then they'll email a Zoom link and password. You can sign up at here. There will be a Zoom discussion afterward. By the way, this is the full schedule of their free Zoom events over the next month. One is their Evening with Woody Guthrie, who was friends with Will Geer. And there is an evening of storytelling from performers who've worked at the Theatricum Botanicum, an evening for young children, and a gala "fundraiser" -- which, again, is free -- full of performers and hosted by Pamela Adlon, creator and star of the series Better Things...and daughter of my friend, the late writer Don Segall, who I wrote about here.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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