Rehearsals are underway and remote recording sessions have kicked off for the 2020 Williamstown Theatre Festival. The regional festival, as was announced earlier this year, has shifted its entire season to audio—in a collaboration with Audible Theater—in the wake of the pandemic.
Three shows will begin remote recording as early as next week: the Robert O’Hara-helmed A Streetcar Named Desire starring Audra McDonald, Carla Gugino, and Bobby Cannavale; Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour, directed by Whitney White; and the Susan Stroman-helmed production of Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51.
READ: In a World of Zoom Readings, Why Williamstown Theatre Festival Turned to Audible
Rehearsals are also underway for the world premiere of Shakina Nayfack's Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club, about a vibrant, international group of transgender women who band together at a hotel in Thailand to confront the challenges and joys of gender confirmation surgery.
Nayfack stars in her play, alongside a cast that includes Ivory Aquino, Kate Bornstein, Liz Lark Brown, Annie Golden, Bianca Leigh, Telly Leung, Dana Levinson, Pooya Mohseni, Angelica Ross, Ita Segev, Jason Tam, and Samy Nour Younes. WTF Associate Artistic Director Laura Savia directs the production.
Exact release dates on Audible and additional information about the full season of seven shows, including casting, will be announced shortly.
