Dear Reader
Yesterday, Nia Vardalos, who I’ll always love for giving us My Big Fat Greek Wedding, reconvened the group of actors she’d worked with for the 2017 run of Tiny Beautiful Things — the play she created out of Cheryl Strayed’s book of the same name. A copy of that book sits dog-eared on my shelf, as I know it does on many other shelves too, filled with nuggets of life advice Strayed gave in her time as The Rumpus’ anonymous columnist. Vardalos decided to bring the cast — Teddy Cañez, Ceci Fernandez, Hubert Point-Du Jour, and Natalie Woolams-Torres — together for a live reading in aid of the Actors Fund. They did this yesterday, and even though they’d done this play many times before, it felt like I was watching them do it for the first time. They were so raw and honest in how they brought to life some of the questions, desperate for answers, Strayed received during that time. Vardalos told Playbill that rehearsing it was “like a salve for our shredded souls.” Watching it was like that too. If you missed it, it’ll be here until May 10.
Here is today’s selection of online events for this time:
1. Music: The 1975 collaborated with The Face magazine to throw their own tribute livestream concert. Phoebe Bridgers, Pale Waves, Clairo, Cavetown, Beabadoobee, Gracie Abrams and Rina Sawayama will cover the English pop-rock band's classics starting at 9am PST / 11am EST.
2. Oscar-winning musician and Once vacuum repairman Glen Hansard will be talking about his creative process and “opening it up for discussion on the matter of songwriting and the like.” Join him at 8pm Irish time aka 12pm PST / 3pm EST
3. Pickathon Presents A Concert A Day is hosting Mac DeMarco at 1pm PST / 4pm EST, meanwhile, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard will be playing Beatles covers, promising to “stay away from the ones everybody does.” Thursday, May 7 at 4pm PST / 7pm EST on his Facebook.
4. Dead To Me stars Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini and James Marsden and creator Liz Feldman (2 Broke Girls) will reunite virtually for a live table read on the eve of the season 2 premiere series, with a Q-and-A afterwards. 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST on Netflix Facebook.
5. From today, Spotlight on Plays, benefiting the Actors Fund, will stream a series of play readings, kicking off with November a 2008 David Mamet comedy about an unpopular president seeking re-election, starring John Malkovich and Patti LuPone and directed by Mamet. 5pm PST / 8 pm EST. Heads up: unlike other events that stay up for some time afterwards, this one will not play again after the live read.
Thank you for reading and subscribing. I’ll leave you with a quote Jewel posted on her Instagram (I’ve found myself relieving my Pieces of You phase lately and singing Who Will Save Your Soul while watering the plants and, eh, well, I’m going with it!).
Stay safe, stay sane
Your neighbour
Nadia