The third season of Live at the Lortel at the Lucille Lortel Theatre begin on Monday, January 10 at 7 PM with director Zhailon Levingston. The series is hosted by Eric Ostrow and co-hosts Joy DeMichelle and John-Andrew Morrison and is designed to give theater makers the opportunity to share insights into their creative process. These conversations dig deep into the artists’ work and career, including past, present, and future projects.
This season, Live at The Lortel looks at the intersection between art and activism. The live interviews take place Mondays at 7:00 PM EST, offering theater fans the opportunity to observe the interviews and participate in a Q&A with artists. The schedule to date is (additional guests will be announced in coming weeks):
Zhailon Levingston – Monday, January 10
Podcast release: January 14
Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. He is a Board Member and Creative Director for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which he co-created, and teaches the Theatre of Change course at Columbia University. He is a Music Mentor Fellow and has done work with Idina Menzel’s A Broader Way Foundation. His directing credits include: Neptune (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum), The Years That Went Wrong(Lark, MCC), The Exonerated (Columbia Law School), Chariot Part 2 (Soho Rep., for The Movement Theatre Company) and Mother of Pearl (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center).
Julie Halston – Monday, January 24
Podcast release: January 28
Julie Halston was awarded the 2020 Isabelle Stevenson Tony® Award for her advocacy with The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. Last seen co-starring in Tootsie on Broadway; she also received the Richard Seff Award for her performance in You Can’t Take It with You. Other Broadway credits include Hairspray, Gypsy and Anything Goes . Halston is a founding member of Charles Busch’s theatre company, co-starring with him in numerous productions including The Divine Sister (Drama Desk nomination), Red Scare on Sunset (Drama Desk nomination) and The Lady in Question. On television, Halston is reprising her role as Bitsy Von Muffling in the “Sex and The City reboot,” “And Just Like That.”
Taylor Mac – Monday, January 31
Podcast release: February 4
Taylor Mac (who uses “judy”—lowercase (sic)—as a gender pronoun) is the author of The Hang (composed by Matt Ray); Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus; The Fre; Hir; The Walk Across America for Mother Earth and Red Tide Blooming; among others. Mac is the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award, is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee for Best Play, a recipient of the Kennedy Prize (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert Award and a Drama League Award, among others. Mac’s philanthropic/activist cause is The LGBT Asylum Task Force.
Tina Andrews – Monday, February 7
Podcast release: February 11
Tina Andrews is an international award-winning writer, director and producer. She wrote and Executive Produced the 4-hour CBS miniseries, “Sally Hemings: An American Scandal” on Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved mistress, for which she won the Writers Guild of America Award for “Outstanding Longform Television,” and two NAACP Image Awards for “Outstanding TV Movie, Miniseries or Special” and “Outstanding Literary, Nonfiction” for her book. Andrews also wrote and Executive Produced the CBS miniseries about Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and the Warner Bros. film, Why Do Fools Fall in Love. She advocates for the American Cancer Society and for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
Qween Jean – Monday, February 28
Podcast release: March 4
Qween Jean is a costume designer who has draped over 50 shows and counting. She is the founder of Black Trans Liberation and has fully committed her voice for the advocacy of marginalized communities, with an emphasis on Black Trans people. In 2021 Qween was MOMA PS1’s artist in residency and co-curated Memoriam and Deliverance, an installation that called awareness to the last five years of transphobic fatal violence while celebrating Black Trans leaders in the community. She was also the opening speaker for the March on Washington March on for Voting Rights.
For further information, go to www.liveatthelortel.com
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