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Lakisha May and Nana Mensah in Jaja's African Hair Braiding, which is live-streaming directly from Broadway this weekend. Photo by Matthew Murphy
Even though in-person theatre and dance are back in full swing, in the name of accessibility we're continuing to round up performances to watch online from the comfort of home. Our carefully curated list spotlights the five best options to stream this weekend, Friday, November 17 to Sunday, November 19, for free or at low cost.
Airing on TV on PBS Thirteen on Friday, November 17 at 9 p.m. ET for FREE. Available to stream online until Friday, December 15.
Theatre legend Audra McDonald narrates this new documentary about how William Shakespeare's pals and fellow players John Heminges and Henry Condell created The First Folio, ensuring the Bard's works weren't lost to history. In addition to speaking to academics, curators and well-known classical actors about the landmark collection, Making Shakespeare: The First Folio spotlights The Public Theater's recent reinventions of The Comedy of Errors with the Mobile Unit and Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park, as well as middle school students studying Romeo and Juliet in the Bronx.
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Live-streaming Friday, November 17 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, November 18 at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November at 2 p.m. ET for $69.
Manhattan Theatre Club is live-streaming the final week of performances of its Broadway hit Jaja's African Hair Braiding, a hilarious and heartbreaking dramedy by award-winning Ghanaian-American dramatist Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play). Set in a bustling Harlem salon staffed by West African immigrants who create masterpieces on their clients' heads, the play paints a colorful portrait of these talented and tenacious women, who work tirelessly to build better lives for themselves and their families in an often hostile country. Obie winner Whitney White directs a superb ensemble cast in this gorgeously designed production (the wigs are especially breathtaking). If you haven't been able to catch this in person, I highly recommend this New York Times critic's pick.
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Live-streaming Saturday, November 18 at 7 p.m. ET for $25
Jersey Boys Tony winner John Lloyd Young returns to 54 Below to croon a diverse array of musical theatre showstoppers, including show tunes from The Wiz, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie, Les Misérables and, of course, the Four Seasons bio-show that made him famous. Streaming live from the cabaret club's swanky stage. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
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Streaming on All Arts for FREE
Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to illuminate contemporary issues, presents Antigone in Ferguson, a Black Lives Matter-infused take on Sophocles' tragedy, which was previously mounted in Harlem, Brooklyn and Missouri. The production fuses dramatic readings of passages from Antigone by well-known actors Samira Wiley (Orange Is the New Black) and Law & Order stars Chris Noth and Tamara Tunie, with gospel music and conversations with community activists about the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. It's political theatre at its most powerful.
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Streaming on All Arts for FREE
All Arts profiles legendary dancer-choreographer Alonzo King, the founder of the San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet and a champion of classical dance for decades.
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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her on Facebook at @Raven.Snook. Follow TDF on Facebook at @TDFNYC.
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