Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced additional free weekly online programming designed to connect audiences with new ideas and artistic expressions. In addition to new topics and participants in the Virtual Salon Series, Rattlestick will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital with a communal ritual via Zoom on April 29 at 8pm. The event includes a reading of an excerpt of Cusi Cram's Novenas for a Lost Hospital with members of the original cast, a discussion, led by Cram and Rattlestick's Artistic Director Daniella Topol, with a nurse who worked at St. Vincent's during the AIDS epidemic along with a ritual of gratitude to healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19.
On May 5 at 3pm, Obie-winner Jonathan McCrory will facilitate a conversation addressing how the pandemic is impacting the way we treat one another. Participants include award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, cultural organizer Geoffrey Jackson Scott, and Rattlestick Managing Director Yue Liu.