We loved the train wreck “Tiger King” on Netflix and Pitbull’s rallying new single “I Believe We Will Win (World Anthem)“ as much as the next person.
But one also needs a little variety during this period of social distancing at home.
South Florida cultural arts and educational groups were quick to create virtual entertainment and programs we could livestream while sheltering when orders to stay indoors began in March. Some of these offerings can still be streamed.
Here’s what you can do to beat boredom if you’re stuck at home. And it has a nice tune
They haven’t stopped.
Here’s the next wave of virtual entertainment — South Florida style — you can enjoy from home. Like a tour of Wynwood’s arts and culture district. Learning how to act or dance professionally on stage. Sending someone you love a video of a local musicians singing their favorite song — personalized with “love and music.”
Theater
▪ Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts debuted Arsht@Home to provide free entertainment and educational content on its arshtcenter.org website.
Watch Miami actors perform monologues written by Miami playwrights like Gabriell Salgado reading Michael McKeever’s “The Miamians.”
Living Room Live features performances by local musicians, like pianist Shelly Berg, the dean of the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and an artistic advisor for the Arsht Center’s Jazz Roots series.
Then there’s “The Art of Making” in which local teaching artists share ideas on how to write a poem, learn choreography, paint or make music using instruments you can find in your kitchen. Who knew?
▪ Virtual Master Classes at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre can help aspiring actors and dancers learn the craft with expert instruction, via Zoom, from experts like Theatre for Young Artists’ Director Earl Maulding and professional dancer Reynel Reynaldo.
Classes, at $20 per session, include an Individual Virtual Group Monologue Class at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. April 15; a Virtual Group Hip-Hop Class at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. April 16; Virtual Group Vocal Performance Class at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. April 17; and Virtual Musical Theatre Class at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. April 18.
There are more classes scheduled through May 31. Visit actorsplayhouse.org to register.
South Florida neighborhoods
▪ The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau says “Miami is ready to be explored — virtually, that is.” So the organization is posting live webcams and virtual tours of Miami’s museums, attractions, national parks, beaches and other offerings on its website.
▪ Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood brings its art, food, entertainment, and wellness experiences to your home through the Wynwood Business Improvement District’s new #WynAtHome virtual series on its @WynwoodMiami Instagram and @WynwoodMiami channels. You can see live videos, DJ sets, photo tours, stories and other never-before-seen content.
Music, dance and poetry
▪ The O, Miami Poetry Festival will continue showing live readings virtually at omiami.org in honor of National Poetry Month through April. One of the events will be a 60-minute online reading, curated by Erika Meitner, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day at 8 p.m. April 21.
Though not what organizers envisioned before COVID-19 altered world reality, O, Miami founder Scott Cunningham told ArtBurst Miami when the group decided to provide virtual content, this ““offers us the opportunity to present many more poets, local ones that will be familiar to our audience along with some from very far away.”
▪ West Palm Beach singer Vinny DeTomasso usually fronts local rock band The Klik. But during this pandemic he’s applied his versatile voice to his virtual Love & Music Serenades. Choose your loved one’s favorite song. Maybe Mom loves Neil Diamond. Dad may go for Frank Sinatra.
Send DeTomasso your request via direct message to his Love & Music Serenades Facebook page and he’ll video himself singing the song you chose and he’ll send the link of a personalized YouTube video to the recipient. The suggested donation is $5 but he says he’s willing to do it gratis. “This is a hard time for everybody but the point is spreading your love.”
Sweet.
▪ Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Coral Gables is doing Facebook Live classes at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The studio is also offering ballroom classes via Zoom for a fee through its website.
Museums, education
▪ Artist Romero Britto joins with the Miami Children’s Museum to bring fun and creative art projects to children and families through “Museum At Home,” a virtual learning space available on the museums’ website and through their social media platforms. His first project: Britto demonstrates how to draw a heart with wings — a figure he has used on some of his own pieces.
▪ LIVE@Frost Science’s speaker series is a new virtual offering at 2 p.m. every Wednesday. The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science’s weekly online LIVE@Frost Science webinars will be livestreamed via the museum’s Facebook page and then get posted on the museum’s YouTube page. These lectures will feature museum experts and scientists on a variety of different science topics.
▪ The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami has new online content and initiatives with virtual tours of its exhibitions, access to youth education and deep dives into its permanent collection via 360-degree photographic scans of exhibitions. One example: a showcase of women artists ― artist Cecilia Vicuña’s “Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen” and French-Mexican Surrealist Alice Rahon’s “Poetic Invocations.”
MOCA’s educational programming includes its “Fun Fridays” series – a series of free at-home art projects. Visit via the MOCA website or Facebook and Instagram pages for regular updates.
▪ Jungle Island invites kids and their families to join its veterinarian, Dr. Jason Chatfield, for his weekly #ChatswithChatfield livestreams via Facebook Live at 3:30 p.m. every Thursday. Among his guests: Rocco, a baby capuchin monkey and Luna, an endangered black-and-white ruffed lemur.
The Miami attraction is also offering homeschool educational activities online through its webpage.
▪ Miami Dade College’s MDC Alumni Hall of Fame gala was to take place on April 14 to honor the civic and business leaders of South Florida.
The 2020 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will now become a virtual week-long celebration via @MDCAlumni IGTV on Instagram.
“You can hear from this year’s 10 inductees as they share their #MDCBold stories about how the college guided them to their professional dreams and why they give back to student scholarships,” MDC said.
The 10 MDC Hall of Fame inductees include Joseph Palmar, CEO of Palmar Forensics; Enrique Villaronga of BAC Florida Bank; Yolanda Valencia of Galleria Farms; Cynthia Garcia-Valdes, principal of Glades Middle School; Eric Maspons, Jr. president of Maspons Funeral Home; Jorge Dominicis, CEO of Wellpath; Michael Lozoff, partner at Shutts & Bowen; Rudy Sarzo, bassist in the early 1980s for Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot; Delma Noel-Pratt, police chief of the Miami Gardens Police Department; Andres Asion, founder of Miami Real Estate Group.
One more time with Pitbull
And OK, we know you want to hear one more chorus from Pitbull’s motivational salute to hometown heroes who are helping us all in this battle with the coronavirus. So have at it.