"Going to" the theater

Now that the pandemic is in full swing again, theaters are trying to keep or regain their audiences by offering archived movies and films of live shows. In fact, there are so many possibilities out there that it can be hard to sort through it all. They're desperate for funds, so many of the shows have a fee. But there's also a lot that's free.

We'll keep adding to this list as we go along. Here are a few sites for starters:

Highly recommended: Maine's own Jewish Film Festival, with movies you'll never see anywhere else. Many offer a glimpse at cultures unfamiliar to most of us, like ultra-conservative Israelis. It's underway right now, so check out the remaining offerings at https://mjff.org/.

A big help: the updates provided weekly by the wonderful folks at the Collins Center at UM. Get on their mailing list, if you aren't already. They include all the performing arts. For example, coming up this weekend is West End Unplugged, with performances by London musical theater stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51imb1n9rEo,

The Stratford Festival, Canada's Shakespeare theater, offers a sizeable choice of filmed plays for a $10/month introductory subscription. (You could always drop out later.) https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/AtHome

Stay tuned for more!