Beyond Broadway, the Show Does Go On

THE NEW YORK TIMES 
By Michael Paulson

The Great Passion Play, a large-scale production adapted from the Christian Gospels, is being performed three times a week in an outdoor amphitheater in Eureka Springs, Ark. Jesus, played here by Scott Naas, is unmasked, but the other characters wear face coverings except when speaking. Beth Hall for The New York Times

“We’d rather go down creating good theater than die the slow death behind our desks,” said Bryan Fonseca, the producing director of Fonseca Theater Company in Indianapolis. The company plans to stage “Hype Man,” a three-character play by Idris Goodwin, outdoors, for 65 mask-wearing patrons. “I am hopeful and also very cautious,” Fonseca said, “careful that I don’t create a problem.” On a 600-acre property in Arkansas, a cast of about 130 re-enacts the story of Jesus for several hundred ticket-holders spread across a 4,000-seat outdoor amphitheater. The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered Broadway through the end of the year (at least), and the nation’s big regional theaters and major outdoor festivals have mostly pivoted to streaming. [More]