SFR Digital-ish Picks—Week of June 24

Queer Theater

New online series brings the theater to you via Zoom

"Doing an online play reading series isn't even something I thought about until the quarantine happened," says Aaron Leventman, who kicks off the Almost Adults Productions' series of play readings this Sunday. "I saw Pride was coming up, and a lot of us can't celebrate the ways we used to, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate my interests and contribute, and LGBTQ+ theater is a niche I've worked in for many years…this lightbulb went off, and I said, 'hey, I need to do this!'"

Leventman put out a national call for playwrights and casting, and the results came swiftly.

"Everybody wanted to get involved," he says, "and while it's always a challenge to put one of these events together, it was something that happened a lot faster and easier than I anticipated."

So how does it work? Easy. Leventman selected plays such as It Ain't Over Til the Pink Lady Sings (the tale of a teen theater troupe putting on Grease and their various personal and sexual awakenings) by Chicago's Allison L Fradkin's and Boston playwright Michael Pisaturo's Where the Fireworks Come From (a coming-of-age tale between two friends about to part and set on the Fourth of July), cast them with notable locals like Zoe Burke, Stephen Jules Rubin, Alix Hudson and others; and the players perform from home. They've been in rehearsals, which Leventman says are going well, and the very nature of the tech allows for a more intimate performance that lies someplace between television, film and theater. And though the final show takes place on Zoom, visiting the Almost Adults Facebook page is the easiest way to go about watching.

"I also want to incorporate local playwrights as much as possible," Leventman tells SFR. "I want to include a variety of voices, as many people as possible in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as different voices and different age groups."

Since the cost is low, Leventman says the series will continue as long as it works, or as long as it's needed—and there's even a little bit of money for the participating actors.

"It can create an audience from all over the world," Leventman adds, "and artists working together who normally wouldn't have that opportunity." (Alex De Vore)

Almost Adults Productions: It Ain't Over Til the Pink Lady Sings:
4 pm Sunday, June 28. Free.
Facebook.com/almostadultstheatre

Crowder’d House

If you've been in the clubs and the venues in the last pretty-much-always, you've seen musician Ron Crowder holding a guitar or banging some drums, and now he's taking that know-how and turning it toward the philanthropic. Crowder's got a new rock song called "This is the Moment" just dying to premiere, and he's gonna make sure that any proceeds that come its way head to Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery's Navajo and Hopi Donation Drive and Relief Fund. Both areas have seen high instances of COVID-19, and Tumbleroot has been donating hand sanitizer and other PPE like crazy. With Crowder onboard, maybe even more can happen? Either way, to hear the song and a Crowder interview, tune in to 98.1 KBAC FM when it drops this Friday—to learn more, preorder or donate, visit roncrowder.bandcamp.com. (ADV).

Ron Crowder Song Premiere:
3 pm Friday, June 26. Free.
98.1 KBAC FM/santafe.com

Electro-Pop!

You've gotta love MAKE Santa Fe. No, seriously—you have to. Because while the world seemingly falls apart around us and we're all too lazy to, like, fix a lamp or whatever, they're helping us do that, plus lots more (with lasers and stuff). This week, for example, find a class on the basics of electronics. Not only will you gain a deeper understanding for all the stuff you use, you'll learn to build something that's Ardunio-based. What, pray-tell, is that? Welp, Ardunio is this cool open-source hardware and software company that builds cool stuff to put into electronic/digital devices. Yeah, you're gonna be a regular electronics star before you know it. Thanks, MAKE! (ADV)

Electronics for Makers, Artists and Inventors:
10 am-noon Saturday, June 27. $40.
makesantafe.org

For Those About to Rock

You know how we're always looking around New Mexico and saying or thinking stuff like, "Damn, it's, like, really incredibly beautiful here." Not only are we right, but that statement carries a lot more weight than we might realize. See, New Mexico's beauty is the product of millennia of shifts and changes and evolution, much of which, like everything, can be seen and traced in (and dramatically inspire) art. We speak to you now of rock art, specifically that made by the nearby Pueblos throughout time. Speaker Severin Fowles hits up the School for Advanced Research this week to discuss that very thing as it applies to the transition between hunter-gatherer to more sedentary agriculture. Art shapes, too, everyone…art shapes, too. (ADV)

The Interpretation of Ancestral Pueblo Rock Art:
2 pm Tuesday, June 30. Free.
sarweb.org