Our launch
One Flea Spare
On May 1 2020, we produced one of Bay Area’s first live digital productions. Naomi Wallace’s ONE FLEA SPARE, her Obie-Award Winning play about the Great Plague of London. Hundreds of people from all over the world (North America, the UK, Germany, and India), tuned into our stream featuring James Carpenter, Tanya Shaffer, Samrat Chakrabarti, Lorne Cardinal, and Emma Marek. Directed by Gio René Rodriguez.
“Unsettlingly relevant … electrifying.”
— The Examiner
Summer 2000
Summer Briefs
An evening of shorts by Billy Aronson (creator of the concept for the Tony-Award-winning musical, RENT), Raoul Rosenberg (former producer for PBS), and Barantunde Thurston (author, former supervising producer of The Daily Show)
“With James Carpenter’s strong direction, [Ellen Mareneck] expresses herself wordlessly but with physicalized eloquence. What starts out as a typical theater-insider skit, lightly comic, slowly becomes a curious, unsentimental little piece in which the two women, each in her own world, somehow connect.”
— The Examiner
THE WELKIN
Partnering with The Actors Reading Collective (ARC), which launched shortly after ONE FLEA SPARE, Remote produced a lightly rehearsed reading of Lucy Kirkwood’s THE WELKIN, a profoundly moving and timely play that had never been heard in the US because of the pandemic. The reading featured Lauren English, Isabel Langen, Catherine Castellanos, Safiya Fredericks, Sylvia Burboeck, Luisa Sermol, Liz Sklar, Kina Kantor Cindy Goldfield, Ash Malloy, Susan Lynskey, Mary Baird, Aaron Wilton, Eddie Ewell, Robert Parsons, Julia McNeal; curated by Timothy Redmond.
FALL 2020
Manatee On Mars
On the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), two theater organizations joined forces to virtually present award-winning playwright Tanya Shaffer's MANATEE ON MARS, a dramedy about the struggles that children on the spectrum and their families face in the American school system. Remote and Playwrights Foundation partnered to present the first public reading of this play under Remote’s new play development series, Remote Studio.
2021
The Art of Sacrifice
The first play of Remote Studios’s 2021 season was a reimagination of THE ART OF SACRIFICE, by award-winning Bay Area playwright Anthony Clarvoe. Directed by Desdemona Chiang, and featuring Susi Damilano and Lauren English, it's about an American chess master who returns home for a defining emotional match with her challenging and unpredictable mother, who years ago coached her to success. A taut, true, and ultimately forgiving play about the negotiations we all make as parents and children, this intricate drama beautifully delineates the complexity within the strict boundaries of a chessboard or a family.
“The ways that mothers and daughters interact, the ways they influence each other, for better and for worse, is an endlessly fascinating and drama-worthy topic, and Clarvoe has mined and distilled one particular such scenario to its full potential. With an original score by local composer Paul Dresher, and such fine-tuned performances, it’s an engrossing 70-minute Zoom ride.”
— Jean Schiffman, San Francisco Examiner
“Damilano and English are at the top of their games, working seamlessly together, move by move. Clarvoe’s human chess stratagems, as they surprisingly exchange roles, serve up a tantalizing drama fit for our world of breakneck narcissism. Bravo to cast and crew for a thrilling match-up!”
— Barry David Horwitz, Theatrius
Magician’s Choice
Remote Theater and Actors Reading Collective (ARC) presented a reading of award-winning Lynne's Kaufman's MAGICIAN'S CHOICE David Cohen, a nineteen-year-old college student, has just been released from the hospital in a wheelchair, a paraplegic as a result of a recent automobile accident. He is determined to walk again or life is not worth living. When that dream collapses, a magician, a master of sleight of hand, helps him to discover new alternatives. David’s mother, girlfriend, and physical therapist also play major roles in his struggle to rehabilitate himself. It turns out all four have illusions of their own. This contemporary dark comedy explores the magic of human resilience. Remote is now exploring the possibility of a co-production of the in-person premier of this play. Cast: Stacy Ross, Brady M. Woolery, Anthony Fusco, Sofia Ahmad, and Alicia P.M. Nelson. Music by Paul Dresher. Directed by Gio René Rodriguez
Dinner With Friends
Remote Studios and the Marsh launched its monthly series of play readings, "Real Actors Working (RAW)." First reading was the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play "Dinner With Friends," by Donald Margulies, in partnership with the Actors Reading Collective (ARC). A dark comedy about couples, disillusionment, and human resilience, the Remote version of this play has a slight post-pandemic twist. Featuring Peter Callender and Remote ensemble members Catherine Castellanos, James Carpenter, and Tanya Shaffer. Music by Paul Dresher, costume design by Cassandra Carpenter, hosted by Philippa Kelly. Directed by Gio René Rodriguez.
The Book of Magdalene
Remote Studios and the Marsh present episode two of RAW (Real Actors Working), a monthly series of lightly rehearsed readings.
In the edge-lands, in weird times, it’s nite-time until it’s not. These nites: Magdalene misses Ru and who they could have been together, Magdalene cares for Elder, Magdalene visits the local church to look at the sky, Magdalene works the call lines of the lonely and encounters Suit. Call this a quest. Call this a life waiting to be born again, haunted by a past when another Magdalene lived and was misunderstood. A contemporary drama of sharp encounters, winding faith, tough love and tenderness suffused with grace and magic. A story about finding the courage to move on when life feels as if it is stuck in place. A cross-roads play.
With Brady Morales-Woolery, Dena Martinez, Joy Carlin, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Tanya Shaffer, and Tim Redmond.
Directed by Gio René Rodriguez