Five newly commissioned works of alternative theatre make up the Fall Forward Festival from the Off-Broadway theatre company, currently represented on Broadway with Is This A Room and Dana H. The works are a mix of virtual and in-person offerings—with some fully realized and some still in progress—all created during the pandemic shutdown.
Aunt Lillian, a new audio musical from Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin), kicks off the festival, available now through December 31. Awoye Timpo directs the cast including Amber Iman (Shuffle Along...), Ashley D. Kelley (The Play That Goes Wrong), NaTasha Yvette Williams (Chicken and Biscuits), Darlesia Cearcy (Once on This Island), Jasmin Walker (Avenue Q), Brandon Gill (A Christmas Carol), and Kevin Massey (Wicked). In the short musical comedy, Childs tells a story from her own childhood in a battle of wills between two California siblings and their visiting Southern aunt.
Maybe Dorothy Was Right, a short film by Ngozi Anyanwu made in collaboration with Alfonso Johnson, is a love letter to New York City and its theatres. It's available for streaming October 7–December 31.
Jared Mezzocchi's multimedia performance On the Beauty of Loss is an exploration of the impact of social technology on how humans collect memories and experience grief. Original composition for the piece is by Lee Kinney. The digitally based performance will stream live November 11–21.
The festival will wrap with two in-person readings of new work at the Vineyard Theatre: 56 Flowers by Polly Pen, a musical about a veterinarian receptionist's fascination with early 20th century composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond (October 24 and 25) and The Fish by Madeline Sayet, a full-length play about two Mohegan-Jewish siblings delving into their ancestors' secrets, in December.
For more information, visit VineyardTheatre.org.