The folks at the Lafayette Salon Series recently cast me in one of their legendary play readings!
The group has been doing readings of plays and screenplays for several years — this is season 13! — and when the pandemic made it impossible to gather at a table and play together the masterminds at LSS pushed the regular events onto the virtual space.
So in May I had the pleasure of joining Kevin Bernard, Mac Brydon, Jane Cortney, and Stewart Walker in a Zoom reading of The Killer, Eugene Ionesco’s 1958 play, which is the first of the Berenger plays. And I got to play Berenger! What a treat that was!
The other Berenger plays are Rhinocéros, Exit the King, and A Stroll in the Air. In The Killer, Berenger is an honest man who discovers a radiant city full of light and progress with an undercurrent of evil that eventually causes him to wonder about the futility of fighting evil and the purpose of goodness. I know, light stuff! But its a fascinating absurdist play, and was challenging and thrilling all at once!
The best way to end a year and start a new one is to share the recent work that you’ve done! Especially when that work is a collaboration with friends old and new!
First my friends at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene asked the Soul to Soul gang to participate in a star-studded virtual Chanukah Spectacular! We did a medley from our show, and it was exciting to share the small screen with so many respected theater veterans!
Then I got to perform in a short film called Rejected! which was filmed virtually and was on display at the New York Public Library! With book and lyrics by Briana Harris and music and lyrics by Andi Lee Carter, and direction from Dev Bondarin, the film was part of the Across a Crowded Room exhibit. Normally the exhibit is performed life, but because of the circumstances of 2020 the works were all recorded and displayed on a special Zoom event.
The cast included Doug Shapiro, Joanie Drago and Dana Aber, and the truly amazing Shakira Searle who performed from the other side of the globe! Andi Lee edited the film, and made it look as if we were together instead of in separate locations!
Then it was once again time for the annual Soul to Soul concert in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But this year, as had become the trend, we recorded the show virtually.
I love doing the show and we have become like a close family over the years we’ve been performing it. It felt strange to be performing those songs without being with each other but the finished product was so good we were all proud of it.
And it was a huge success! Rather than fill the 250 seats in the theater at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, we had close to 2,500 households streamed the performance. The show went over so well that it was replayed during a virtual international Yiddish Festival hosted by the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest, Romania!
In the midst of the pandemic, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share some songs with the world in a solo concert!
Produced by my good friends at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, “The Way I Feel” was a lunchtime concert performed right in my dining room! The set included folk songs, Yiddish songs, a few original tunes and soul classics about hope. The show was streamed on NYTF.org!
Tony Perry 
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