Downtown Crossing

Company One, October 2020

streaming producer, leanna keyes smiling inside a green bordered circle

Leanna
Says .... ....

What I love about Downtown Crossing is that I quickly developed absolute trust with the creative team. I’d come up with an idea and be about 80% sure I knew how to pull it off, and the director’s encouragement helped me find the other 20%. This was early in the pandemic when live green screen work was still quite new. Did we know how to have two actors, one in Puerto Rico and one in Boston, take a selfie together live? Nope. Did we figure it out? Absolutely.

Downtown Crossing

Transcend Streaming’s first full green screen production! We put actors who had never met on a subway together, complete with selfies and prop passes.

Actors all in different locations from California to Puerto Rico to Massachusetts, in front of green screens, combined into dynamic scenes both realistic and abstract. This show was designed and premiered in a week and a half. On Marathon Monday, seven undocumented Bostonians cross paths on the Orange Line. When their train is delayed due to police action at Downtown Crossing, they share their stories — both hopeful and heart-wrenching — in intimate, intersecting monologues that spotlight what it’s like to build a life while holding your breath.

Actors all in different locations from California to Puerto Rico to Massachusetts, in front of green screens, combined into dynamic scenes both realistic and abstract. This show was designed and premiered in a week and a half. On Marathon Monday, seven undocumented Bostonians cross paths on the Orange Line. When their train is delayed due to police action at Downtown Crossing, they share their stories — both hopeful and heart-wrenching — in intimate, intersecting monologues that spotlight what it’s like to build a life while holding your breath.

Downtown Crossing Creative Team:

David Valdes – Playwright 

Summer L. Williams – Director 

Jessica Scout Malone – Dramaturg 

Ilana M. Brownstein – Development Dramaturg 

Tarik Jones – Assistant Director 

Anna Birnholz – Assistant Dramaturg

Transcend Streaming – Streaming Production 

Danielle Domingue Sumi – Costume Designer 

Aubrey Dube – Sound Designer 

Victoria Rojo – Design Assistant 

Bianca Estensen-Tijerino – Props Manager 

Emma Nafz – Stage Manager 

Mads Massey – Production Manager

 

Downtown Crossing featured the following performers: 

Christina R. Chan, Jean Philippe Darang, Venuz Delmar, Graciela Femenia Tully, Ben Harris, Thomas Vorsteg, and Eiko Yamamoto.