NO PAUSE IN PASADENA

Pasadena Playhouse launches streaming platform PlayhouseLive with fresh programming.

BY SHERRY STERN

PRESSING “PAUSE”? Not an option for Pasadena Playhouse. Its century plus legacy encourages forward momentum. Audience and theater- makers long to connect. Artists crave to respond in an extraordinary moment. There are bills to pay and people to keep employed.

“One of the tragedies of everything going on right now is that the way we process things around us in the world, challenging things like a pandemic or social unrest, is through the arts,” says Danny Feldman, producing artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse.

“There still is beauty and art,” he says. “There are wonderful artists with things to say about the world right now and a lot of people wanting to experience and absorb. So how do we get the financial engine of American theater going again?”

Pasadena Playhouse’s answer is PlayhouseLive, a new streaming platform of fresh programming. Some events are free, but most are ticketed as pay-per-view shows or via membership packages.

LANISA FREDERICK AND DANIELLE PINNOCK, INTERMISSION WITH HASHTAG BOOKED.

The series In Development looks at unproduced theatrical work such as the new musical Iceboy! Intermission With Hashtag Booked offers celebrity interviews with comedy duo LaNisa Frederick and Danielle Pinnock. The first Page to Stage follows last year’s Little Shop of Horrors from rehearsal to opening night. Also: filmed shows by Bob Baker Marionette Theater and a revue inspired by Broadway great Jerry Herman.

The Playhouse develops most of its shows, so commissioning works for PlayhouseLive was a natural fit. “What we’re seeing emerging is artists’ desire to create a new art form,” Feldman says. “Digital theater is its own genre.”

Some financial footing comes from a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts coronavirus aid grant. The restwould come from sponsors and ticketing. “It’s a risk, right?” Feldmansays. “We’re essentially starting a new business.”

PlayhouseLive is available on a stand-alone website and accessible through such distribution channels as iPhone and Android apps, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku.

As Pasadena’s 686-seat theater transforms to a digital setting, one live show is primed to return when theater going is safe.

The spring run of Ann, a portrayal of legendary Texas governor Ann Richards, was among pandemic casualties. According to Feldman, playwright-star Holland Taylor is champing at the bit to return.