The Apple Family will once again reunite online for a second world-premiere Zoom play from writer-director Richard Nelson. Titled And So We Come Forth: A Dinner on Zoom, the virtual production will be streamed for free for eight weeks with proceeds going to The Actors Fund.
Set in early July 2020, amidst protests against racial injustice and the easing of coronavirus lock downs, And So We Come Forth will star Stephen Kunken, Sally Murphy, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, and Jay O. Sanders, all performing from their homes.
Presented by Apple Family Productions, the new play—written and directed by Nelson—will be available beginning July 1 at 7:30 PM ET on YouTube here and at theapplefamilyplays.com
Nelson's original Zoom play, What Do We Need to Talk About? Conversations on Zoom, was first performed live on YouTube on April 29 as a benefit for the Public Theater, which commissioned the play. Viewed more than 70,000 times, it remains available to stream on The Public's YouTube channel through June 28.
Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama, which includes The Apple Family Plays, The Gabriels, and The Michaels, has been presented at The Public over the last decade. Featuring the Apple Family, and played by the original cast (which included Jon DeVries), What Do We Need to Talk About? Conversations on Zoom picked up with the characters during their time in quarantine—offering a glimpse into a family talking, reacting and questioning the world they had found themselves in.
“I’m proud to be reunited again with the cast of the Apple Family plays to be able to share another Zoom play, written in this time of global crisis,” shared Nelson. “The last Zoom play was a fundraiser for The Public Theater which has nurtured and produced so much of my work, and for this play, the cast wanted to support The Actors Fund since so many in our performing arts and entertainment community are out of work due to the pandemic. We will be producing And So We Come Forth independently and on our own YouTube Channel this time, and I hope viewers who are missing theater will welcome the Apples back into their homes.”
