Off-B'way Update: Holland Taylor, Ana Villafane in N/A

Holland Taylor and Ana Villafane
will co-star in N/A.

Emmy winner and Tony nominee Holland Taylor (The Practice, Ann) and Theater World Award winner Ana Villafane (On Your Feet) will co-star in N/A, a new play by Mario Correa (Dark Waters, TAIL! SPIN!), chronicling the conflict between the first woman Speaker of the House and the youngest one ever elected to Congress. Tony winner Diane Paulus (Jagged Little Pill, Pippin, Waitress) directs this two-hander at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater with previews beginning June 11 ahead of a June 23 opening. (Note: this is not a Lincoln Center Theater production).

The play is described as based on real events, but does not specify who the characters are modeled on. So probably, the N is Nancy Pelosi, twice Speaker of the House, and the A is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes, the representative from Queens and the Bronx, NY who defied Pelosi as she and her colleagues (known as the Squad) pursued an ultra-liberal agenda and Pelosi sought the middle ground in order to get legislation passed. Taylor previously played another powerful political woman in the one-woman play Ann about Texas governor Ann Richards. Full disclosure: Ocasio-Cortez is my Congressperson in Jackson Heights, Queens. It had been Ocasio-Cortez when she was first elected. Then redistricting switched it to Grace Meng. Now after another round of changing boundaries, we have Ocasio-Cortez again.

MacTrump: A Shakespearean Farce: Act III, Scene II

Let us continue with my Shakespearean parody of the Trump circus: (previous installments Act One, Act Two, Act Three Scene One)

The curtain rises on a gloomy cave with three forbidding figures surrounding a boiling cauldron. At first they appear to be the three reporters from Act One who were in reality the three witches. Then lightning strikes and they slowly morph into Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un, and the Saudi Crown Prince.

All Three: Double, double, toil and trouble
Media burn and racism bubble
Unleash the hate with a viral stream
Ripping bullets and victims' scream

Witch 1 (Putin): Energize the brew with a cyber hack
Leave no trace of Wikileaks' track
Flavor with poisonous blaze
And ripped-out livers of despised gays

Witch 2 (Kim Jung Un): Add vapor trail from nuclear missile
Blood pricked from sharpened thistle
Saliva from Trump's ass-kissing smacks
Crumbs from his Cheetos, French Fries, and Big Macs

Witch 3 (Saudi Crown Prince): Throw in limbs from chopped up writer
Oil contract and Middle-East igniter
Veil worn by hypocritical First Daughter
Souls of victims of our ravenous slaughter