Odds & Ends: Tony Winners Ali Stroker, André De Shields Among Stars Teaching from Home & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed recently.

Tony Winner Ali Stroker & More Join Bridge to Broadway
Some incredible talents have joined the already star-studded Bridge to Broadway event, stage alum Erik Liberman's online initiative that pairs aspiring musical-theater performers with Great White Way professionals. The program offers conversations and Q&As with Broadway luminaries working both onstage and behind the scenes. A percentage of the proceeds benefits The Actors Fund. The next round of guests includes Ali Stroker, André de Shields, Michael McElroy, Ted Sperling, Arian Moayed, Michele Shay, Michael Berresse and Austin Pendleton and Jay Duplass.

2020 Powerhouse Theater Season Has Been Postponed
New York Stage and Film and Vassar College announced that the 2020 Powerhouse Theater season has been postponed to 2021 as a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Each year, the Powerhouse season runs in June and July and serves more than 400 professional artists, 50 student writers, directors and actors in its training program, 25 interns and 10,000 audience members. Last year, the season included a reading of Ingrid Michaelson’s stage adaptation of The Notebook. New York Stage and Film will continue to serve artists throughout the course of the full calendar year with workshops, readings and residencies.

Les Miserables—The Staged Concert Available for Download
Producer Cameron Mackintosh has announced the digital debut of the Les Misérables -The Staged Concert on digital download in the U.K. and Australia, which will also raise funds for performers, musicians and the National Health Service. For every £9.99 digital download, The Mackintosh Foundation will also donate £5.00 to be shared amongst the charities Acting for Others, the Musicians Union Coronavirus Hardship Fund and Captain Tom Moore’s Walk for the NHS fund. In addition, Mackintosh has launched the fundraising by donating £100,000 from his foundation. Hear the people sing, and make your own contribution here.

Disney Brings Theater Magic Home with The Lion King Experience
Disney Theatrical Productions is now offering a free virtually accessible version of The Lion King Experience, a unique holistic arts education program that provides students and educators an immersive introduction to theater making through the lens of the Broadway smash hit. The web-based, multi-media curriculum was originally designed to be facilitated in a classroom by an instructor as an enhancement for schools producing kids and junior adaptations of The Lion King, but with new step-by-step instructions, students can explore the full experience at home. Through the curriculum, students examine theatrical processes including playwrighting, directing, designing, technical theater and more. For more information, click here.

Denise Gough & More Set for Unprecedented: Real Time Theatre from a State of Isolation
As previously reported, BBC Arts has joined forces with the theater company Headlong and Century Films for Unprecedented: Real Time Theatre from a State of Isolation, a series of short, digital plays written and performed in isolation, which will be broadcast. Written by celebrated playwrights, including Ink's Tony-nominated scribe James Graham, the plays will respond to how our understanding and experiences of community, education, work, relationships, family, culture, climate and capitalism are evolving on an unprecedented scale as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The cast of over 50 U.K. actors will include Tony nominee Denise Gough, Arthur Darvill, Patricia Allison, James Norton and many more. Using digital conferencing technology and combining live and pre-recorded material, these intimate new works will be broadcast on the BBC this May.