Theater Notebook: San Diego Theatre Month offers wealth of streamers, plus one outdoor show

Jake Broder stars in North Coast Rep's "Einstein Comes Through."

Here’s the initial lineup of San Diego theater shows to watch at a discount during the month of May

San Diego Union-Tribune

April 25, 2021 12:52 PM PT

To support local theaters that are hoping to stage a live comeback this summer, San Diego Performing Arts League has revamped its annual San Diego Theatre Week promotion to a monthlong program.

Tickets will be offered to locally produced showed for $15, $30 and $45. New shows are being added each week, but for now there are nine, including one in-person show at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad.

Here are details on the shows now on offer from May 1 to 31. All shows are filmed for streaming, unless otherwise noted. In order to qualify for the ticket discounts, use the code SDTW21 when buying tickets online. For details and new show additions, visit sandiegotheatremonth.com/shows.

“Constellations”: Nick Payne’s time-hopping play about a romantic relationship with endless possibilities will be presented by Coronado Playhouse in an streaming on demand production May 12 through 30. Tickets are $15 with code.

“Einstein Comes Through”: David Ellenstein and Marc Silver’s 2005 one-man mystery play is about an actor who makes his living playing Albert Einstein and how the famed physicist’s theories figure into the very real drama in the actor’s personal life. “Einstein Comes Through” will stream April 28 through May 23. Tickets are $30 with code.

“Harawi”: Project Blank San Diego presents Olivier Messiaen’s final song cycle for female voice and piano in a livestreamed performance from The Front in San Ysidro. Featuring mezzo-soprano Leslie Anne Leytham and pianist Brendan Nguyen, this vocal work brings together the love and death story of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” with the Peruvian Indigenous language of Quechuan. Shows are at 7 p.m. May 28 and 2 p.m. May 30. Tickets are $30 with code.

A scene from Blindspot Collective's new musical for families, "Lit, now streaming through May 16.

“Lit”: Based on a story by Desha Crownover with music and lyrics by Blake McCarty and Ian Brandon, this musical for children and families is an adventure story about how the child of the moon helps light the night sky with stars by discovering the properties of light. Produced by Blindspot Collective, “Lit” is now streaming through May 16. Tickets in May are $15 with code.

“The Mountaintop”: Katori Hall’s play, about Martin Luther King Jr. meeting with a surprise visitor at his Memphis hotel the night before he died, will be presented in a co-production by American History Theater, The Roustabouts Theatre Co. and Teenage Youth Performing Arts Theatre Co. (TYPA). The show is playing on select dates April 24 through through May 16, but the May 2 and 8 performances are eligible for the discounted price of $15 with code.

“My Brooklyn Hamlet”: San Diego actor/playwright Brenda Adelman’s solo play was inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” but is based on her own family’s tragedy. In 1995 Brooklyn, Adelman’s father shot and killed her mother and then married her aunt a few months later. In “Hamlet,” Hamlet’s uncle kills his brother and then marries Hamlet’s widowed mother. The play is being streamed in a co-production by Oceanside Theatre Co. and Scripps Ranch Theatre April 23 through May 2. Tickets are $15 with code.

Singers Jasmine January, left, and Zackary Scot Wolfe sing at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad

New Village Arts at the Flower Fields: The Carlsbad theater company is presenting live cabaret concerts in an outdoor amphitheater at the floral attraction. Shows, which are at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, have a different theme each weekend. Broadway show tunes will be presented April 29-May 2 and the theme is “Dance Dance Revolution” May 6-9. Tickets, which include admission to the flower fields, are $45 with code.

“R New Home” and “Franklin’s Window” — A program of two one-act comedies by playwright Earl Hamilton Jr. “R New Home” is about a buzzard at the zoo adjusting to life with a new roommate from the wild. “Franklin’s Window” is about a former army veteran who believes he’s restricted to his own house. The plays will stream at 7 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, May 6 through 30. Tickets are $15 with code.

“Stronger on the Other Side”: The San Diego Women’s Chorus will present a pair of virtual concerts on different social media platforms — on YouTube at 7 p.m. May 15 and on Facebook Live at 4 p.m. May 16. Tickets are $15 with code.

Kragen writes about theater for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.