Pasadena Playhouse Launches a Streaming Platform for Theater
On Tuesday, the Pasadena Playhouse announced the launch of PlayhouseLive, a first-of-its-kind nonprofit streaming platform to showcase theatrical productions from multiple theaters around the country to a national and international audience. Premiering this fall, PlayhouseLive will be a digital hub for high-quality digital theater experiences, presenting live and live-captured performances, original series, educational programming and other industry-related content in a new form.
Producing Artistic Director Danny Feldman shared, “As the harshrealities of COVID’s impact on live theater were becoming clear, we began workon a digital hub that would connect the artists and audiences who were reachingout for each other during this challenging time. The Playhouse has historicallybeen an innovator and we continue that spirit on this new adventure in thedigital world.”
PlayhouseLive willbreak down the physical boundaries of theater walls and open access toaudiences all over the world. It will also be integrated into the PasadenaPlayhouse’s Community at Play program which remove barriers to artsparticipation and ensures free and low-cost ways to engage with the arts. Distributionchannels will include a standalone website, iPhone and Android apps, AppleTV,Amazon FireTV, Roku, Chromecast, and AirPlay, among others.
Powered by Pasadena Playhouse, PlayhouseLive programming will include newfilmed productions, staged readings, and cabarets, as well as original series,documentaries, and theater classes. It will be a home for a widearray of theatrical voices through new and revisited work. PlayhouseLive will also serve as an online companion to the work thatPasadena Playhouse and partner theaters create on our stages once live theaterperformances resume. The initial slate of programming for PlayhouseLive will be announced next month.
The new digital theater hub will offer freecontent, pay-per-view events, as well an all-access Membership.
Feldman shared, “Initially, most of the content willbe generated by Pasadena Playhouse as we have been working on this since thePlayhouse was shut down. As our library grows, our goal is for the platform toserve the nonprofit theater community including the digital productions andoriginal series created by our partners as well.”
To get more information about PlayhouseLive and its programming, sign up for the newsletter at playhouselive.org.