The Public Theater has extended its virtual world premiere of The Line through September 1. The documentary play, co-written by Coal Country writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, premiered via live stream on YouTube July 8 and was originally scheduled to go offline August 4.
The Line is based on the first-person accounts of New York City’s first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Directed by Blank, the online play features a cast made up of Santino Fontana, Arjun Gupta, John Ortiz, Alison Pill, Nicholas Pinnock, Jamey Sheridan, and Lorraine Toussaint.
The Line features original music composition by Aimee Mann, and Janelle Caso serves as production stage manager.
“In spring 2020, we conducted anonymous interviews with NYC frontline medical workers battling the COVID-19 virus,” shared Blank and Jensen in an earlier statement. “Through these interviews, we began to see care as a radical response to institutionalized violence and the systems that perpetuate it. Created from quarantine in ‘rapid response’ to this national emergency, The Line presents a fundamental redefinition of what it means to protect and serve, examining the fault lines in our system through the words of the brave people who show up every day to care for us all.”
