Posts Tagged ‘virtual’

Concerts and Shows to See This Winter

We’re still in a virtual pause. Theaters are still closed, but there’s talk of outdoor concerts resuming this summer and Broadway theaters re-opening by the fall. In the meantime, there’s plenty to fill out your arts card from your computer.

CONCERTS

Emanuel Ax - New York Philharmonic String Quartet Photo: 92nd Street Y

92ND STREET Y

Winter/Spring Streaming Music Season

New York Philharmonic String Quartet and Emanuel Ax, piano

February 1 – 7:30pm

The first of 13 concerts in the season, world-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax joins friends and longtime collaborators the New York Philharmonic String Quartet on February 1. The Quartet takes the stage in Beethoven’s F-Minor Quartet, “Serioso,” before Ax joins for Dvořák’s exuberant Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major. All concerts in the program are webcast premieres.

For the Y’s calendar of music events, both classical and popular, visit here.

THE TOWN HALL

“Preformances”

Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, The Town Hall continues its programming in a different format, offering Preformances concerts online, some free and others for a small ticket fee, featuring noted singers and musicians.

The ARK Trio Photo: The Town Hall

January 21

Allison Charney and the Ark Trio

The ARK Trio joins series host, soprano Allison Charney, discussing and performing works by composers Michael Ching and Kim D. Sherman who also appear to talk about their compositions.

This is a free livestream event. Registration is required to receive a personal link.

Mariza - Photo Courtesy of Ticketmaster

January 29

Mariza Sings Amalia

Portuguese singer Mariza celebrates the twentieth anniversary of her career and the centenary of the late Queen of Fado, Amália Rodrigues.

Judy Collins - Photo Courtesy of Ticketmaster

February 12

Judy Collins

Judy Collins performs a recreation of her 1964 concert hall debut at The Town Hall with music by Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton and Billy Ed Wheeler among others.

MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES

Carole King - (c) Tim Maggiani

BROADWAY ON DEMAND

“Carole King: Natural Woman”

Beginning January 29

If you loved Beautiful, you won’t want to miss this documentary celebration of the life of Carole King. Carole King: Natural Woman tracks King’s life and career from 1960’s New York to the music mecca of 70’s Los Angeles through the present. Performances, interviews, home movies and photos are featured.

For their full library of livestream programming, visit BroadwayOnDemand.com.

Please Call Home: The Big House Years -- Exclusive Allman Brothers Film – Photo Courtesy of: Tarrytown Music Hall

THE TARRYTOWN MUSIC HALL

“Please Call Home: The Big House Years” — Exclusive Allman Brothers Film & Live Q&A

January 23 – link available for 48 hours

Livestreamed by The Tarrytown Music Hall, Please Call Home showcases the early days of the Allman Brothers Band. The film is followed up by a live Q&A moderated by the Allman Brother Band Museum board member Mark Franzoso.

THEATER

Gloria - Photo by Carol Rosegg

THE VINEYARD THEATRE

“Gloria”

January 19-24

Presented as a benefit for the Vineyard Theater, the cast reading of Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ funny and powerful play Gloria follows an ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine, each of whom hopes for an editorial career and a book deal before he or she turns 30. The play moves from ordinary to extraordinary, chronicling the changing lives of each of the protagonists.

Encores! - Photo Courtesy of New York City Center

NEW YORK CITY CENTER

“Encores! Inside the Revival”

Home of the beloved Encores! musical theater series, now on pause, City Center has created programs to tide you over until the next season. With Encores! Inside the Revival, you’ll see snippets and behind-the-scenes conversations and performances for each upcoming show.

Just released, The Tap Dance Kid is a dance and music riot featuring Dulé Hill (The West Wing). The 1983 Tony-nominated musical is currently being revived for new audiences through City Center’s commitment to producing musicals that deserve renewed attention. The video is a look into the creative process of the future show and features Tony-award winning director Kenny Leon (A Raisin the Sun), book adaptor Lydia Diamond, choreographer Jared Grimes and cast member from the original Broadway production Dulé Hill. The show is especially timely with a storyline about America as a place for everyone where every kid can and should dream.

Also available for viewing are The Life with Billy Porter, Love Life with Victoria Clark, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Into the Woods.

ONGOING

Stars in the House

STARS IN THE HOUSE

Hosted by Sirius XM’s Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley

Streamed live Tuesday-Saturday at 8pm, Stars in the House has raised more than $650,000 in this series of programs begun March 2020 in support of The Actors Fund. Programming changes nightly ranging from a full hour with stars from Broadway productions, to reunions of casts from TV shows such as Desperate Houses and the recent show featuring the cast of Grey’s Anatomy. Individual performers are also featured.

In addition to Broadway and broadcast topics, Stars in the House offers information pertaining to the pandemic and to ways to support the Broadway community. All shows are archived online.

Photo Courtesy of Broadway HD

BROADWAY HD

Pippin, 42nd Street, Oklahoma! and much more

Missing Broadway? Broadway HD is as close as you can get to it right now. With a yearly or monthly subscription, you’ll have access to their full library of recorded Broadway productions and more. It’s a treat if you’re longing for a musical fix. You can watch at your leisure and as many times as you’d like. Fan favorites are there as well as oldies that are pure magic. With Broadway likely not to return before next fall, you’ll be grateful to Broadway HD. It also makes the perfect gift for theater lovers. A sampling of shows available to watch include Kinky Boots, Jersey Boys, Forever Plaid, Godspell, She Loves Me, Into the Woods and Show Boat.

You Won’t Miss Halloween as Much This Year with This IRL Treat at the Empire State Building

You don’t need to visit New York City this Halloween, nor even leave your home to have a true New York City trick-or-treat experience. This year, the Empire State Building is making its recognizable tower lights interactive for Halloween. On October 31 at 8pm, the iconic landmark takes Hasbro’s ESB Simon® memory game to new heights with a live game on the façade of Empire State Building. Your ticket to the fun — without leaving your home — is at www.Simon-Live.com where you can access the fast-paced game.

Simon Lighting

World-renowned production and lighting designer Marc Brickman and his team at Tactical Manoeuvre developed ESB Simon® using the world-famous tower lights as the pattern maker. You can prepare for the Hallow-IN event by visiting the website in advance to practice your skills to play.

So, grab your trick-or-treaters, costume up (yes, seriously) and enjoy a different kind of Halloween this year.

Here’s how it works:

  • Log into http://www.Simon-Live.com with your touch device (phone, iPad, computer) and click on “Let’s play” and wait for a game to start.
  • Watch levels of the Empire State Building flash in an increasingly complex series of blue, green, yellow and red colors and tones. Tap the building to correctly repeat the pattern. The longer you play, the more complex the sequences.
  • For every correct answer, players climb further up the Empire State Building. Each wrong answer knocks you down. Your objective is to make it to the top of the building and the leaderboard. You can keep playing until the game is over.
  • If you’re lucky enough to actually have a view of the Empire State Building, you can both play AND watch the display live on the building.
  • Up to 100,000 people can play at once, and the game will be live on the Empire State Building from 8pm – 9pm.

Need to brush up on your memory skills? Practice using Infinite Play mode ahead of Halloween night. But, unlike the Halloween game if you get one wrong answer in Infinite Play mode, your game is over.

SummerStage Jubilee Offers a Virtual All-Star Musical and VIP Line-up – September 17 at 8pm

Don’t miss this one. Be sure to tune in Thursday, September 17 at 8pm for this finale to the SummerStage Concert Series.

The SummerStage Jubilee, a free benefit concert supporting CPF’s programs in parks, is an hour-long digital event via livestream. The line-up is amazing: Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, Rufus Wainwright, Leslie Odom Jr., Rosanne Cash, Emily King and PJ Morton. The event highlights the various City Parks Foundation programs and will also showcase notable advocates for CPF’s work including sports icon and champion of equality Billie Jean King, television and radio host Ryan Seacrest, television host and musician Jimmy Fallon, musical artist H.E.R., comedian Lewis Black and performer and Late Show bandleader Paul Shaffer.

This digital benefit can be accessed via SummerStage Instagram, SummerStage YouTube, Facebook page as well as through Bowery Presents, Brooklyn Bowl, The Capitol Theatre, FANS.com, iHeart Media’s Q104.3, Live Nation, Live for Live Music, Relix, Time Out New York, and WFUV. New York City and tri-state area residents can watch encore presentations of SummerStage Jubilee on Saturday, September 19 at 7pm on WLNY-TV 10/55 and on Sunday, September 20 at 2pm. The gala can also be viewed nationally on demand on AXS TV for 30 days.

At a time when public programs have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City’s parks have remained open and park programs have been scheduled virtually. The 2020 SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert will help support these program and donations will also help ensure SummerStage, New York City’s largest free music festival, and SummerStage Anywhere, its virtual festival, will remain free and available to all.

In addition to the musical performances, a diverse group of celebrities, many of whom are New Yorkers, will share their stories about New York Cityand the City Parks Foundation. More information on this year’s SummerStage Jubilee can be found at http://summerstagejubilee.org/.

Staying Fit Virtually while Making a Difference

I woke up this morning and forgot what month it was. I had to ask Siri what day is was, as I usually do, but this time I also had to ask her what the date was. As each day blurs into the next, it’s the shimmers of light that make a difference. Like when Siri’s response causes the screen on my sleeping iPhone to brighten, or when I hear the birds in the morning now that the sounds of traffic or planes have pretty much disappeared.

And it’s the efforts of people that add to the glow. People who are going above and beyond to help others in so many ways during our very confusing present.

Dennis Hunter and Adrian Molina of Warrior Flow

One such person is someone that I’ve known for 12 years. A friend and instructor who I met at a Manhattan gym when I was in the midst of another pivot — a time when I had to move out of my apartment — Adrian Molina was a newly minted instructor at Equinox with an exciting form of yoga that he had named Warrior Flow. Warrior Flow yoga led by Adrian in his calming yet motivating manner helped me survive some crazy months of uprooting and was the beginning of a friendship that has survived my move and his relocation from New York to Miami.

Adrian Molina

As Adrian evolved his career, he also found new ways to give back to the communities where he lived, with one such endeavor being the Warrior Flow Foundation. Through the Foundation, Adrian and his colleagues are able to take their yoga, stress management and mindfulness techniques to some of the populations who need it most including those on the front lines of crises and those without resources. Initially, the Warrior Flow Foundation reached out to homeless shelters, women suffering from abuse, and prisons in Miami. With the severe strain on first responders and medical workers at present, the program has expanded to police, fire fighters, EMS workers, doctors and nurses. The Warrior Flow Foundation continues to develop to reach out to new communities with a goal of making a difference and helping. Future plans include outreach to other cities in need as the program develops.

Warrior Flow Foundation in Miami

With this in mind, Adrian curated a weekly program of donation-based online classes for those of us confined to our homes and unable to work out, practice yoga, meditate or even socialize since the shelter-in-place regulations went into effect. In so doing, he has helped people like me stay centered and connected while raising money so needed to support those most stressed around us.

Warrior Flow in Tuscany

You can join the online Warrior Flow community by subscribing on a monthly or annual basis to Warrior Flow TV for unlimited online classes, plus a daily roster of live programs which are archived for viewing at any time. The line-up is impressive, taught by some of the country’s most accomplished instructors, many of whom have worked with Adrian during his tenure at Equinox. A portion of the proceeds goes towards the Warrior Flow Foundation. As a bonus, The Foundation’s newsletter not only includes the full schedule of classes but also adds motivational as well as introspective thoughts, interviews and readings, all very welcome as we try to make sense of the present .

Adrian Molina

The light from this group has helped me stay grounded during the past tumultuous months. Unlike other yoga practices that you might be familiar with, Adrian’s yoga classes are a refreshing, distinctive breath of community punctuated by interactive chat from members around the world. But this is still serious stuff: Adrian’s classes will give you quite a workout and will leave you sweaty and serene. So will the other classes throughout the day. Beyond yoga, I’ve also powered through Abs, Cardio Sculpt, boot camp, barre and Pilates classes, with an end-of-day reward of Dennis Hunter’s soothing and calming sound bath.

Arthur Murray NYC Dance Marathon

I’ve also kept my sanity by adding in my favorite form of cardio: dance. Arthur Murray NYC has a daily Dance Along @arthurmurraynyc on Instagram Live that has refreshed my ballroom experience from years past and brought it into the present with current music and steps. They even have a dance workout session that riffs on a theme such as the 70s or 80s, appropriate music and attire included. All classes are free, too.

Arthur Murray NYC IG Live Class

Keeping us entertained and connected, Arthur Murray NYC hosted an entertaining showcase of students performing along with the pros — you can view it on their YouTube channel. The dance school’s first 24-hour dance marathon raised money for two worthy organizations, Feed Our Superheroes and the Nurses House Campaign with non-stop instruction, films, discussions, interviews and more, all related to dance. I was captivated by the professionalism of the dancers, the sophistication of the video techniques, and the knowledge imparted. And this super community-uniting effort raised more than $6500.

Karma Yoga's Jessica Gershman

After all this working out and actual and vicarious dance, I’m grateful to have someone qualified to put me back together again. Jessica Gershman, who leads yoga and therapeutic classes online with Karma Yoga, offers a weekly myofascial release class. WFH might be productive but it’s definitely hard on the body when you don’t have the best ergonomic set-up. By helping yourself heal, you’re also giving back: Jessica selects organizations in need and donates all proceeds from designated classes to organizations such as Front Line Foods which supports local restaurants helping to feed frontline healthcare workers, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Lori McAlister of LoriYoga

Another yogini who I’ve known for many years from her classes at New York Yoga, Lori McAlister of LoriYoga, has channeled her passion into support for the BLM movement as well via the Black to the Future Action Fund. Lori’s classes are a soothing and invigorating mix of vinyasa yoga styles in a methodology she calls Sequencology.

While there are many free Zoom classes and IG Live classes offered online, as well as subscription-based and fee-based classes, it’s the ones that go beyond to help those in need that resonate with me. And they’re the ones that I encourage you to support.

For more information:

Warrior Flow, www.warriorflowfoundation.org, www.warriorflow.tv

Karma Yoga,  http://karmayogaindy.com/

LoriYoga, https://loriyoga.com/

Arthur Murray NYC, https://nycarthurmurray.com /

Celebrate Stay-at-Home Cinco de Mayo in Style

Cinco de Mayo is an interesting holiday. While it commemorates a battle that was fought in Mexico, Mexico doesn’t celebrate it. And what’s even more perplexing is that outside of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is often confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is actually on September 16. For those of you interested in the origins of this crazy fiesta day, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Batalla de Puebla fought on May 5, 1862 in which the small town of Puebla defeated invading French troops.

Courtesy: Morton Beebe/CORBIS

So, why is Cinco de Mayo such a big deal north of the border? The origins of its celebration began in California in 1863 as a symbol of solidarity with Mexico against France. And, Americans being Americans, we love having a reason to celebrate.

Since we can’t join our friends at a Mexican restaurant or share a toast at our neighborhood bar this year, we’ll just have to bring the party home.

Spice up Your Space and Your Energy

Prep your home with the red, white and green colors of the Mexican flag using bandanas, towels, streamers or anything you might have on hand. Involve the kids in making a colorful piñata that you can fill with candy or small toys. If you have some balloons, any colors will work!

Set the mood with an all-day Instagram fiesta put on by Solmar Hotels & Resorts @Solmarhotelsandresorts. Through a series of IG stories dubbed “An Ode to the Avocado,” you’ll get the intel for making avocado-inspired facials and typical Mexican recipes and cocktails where avocados are king.

Add an educational dimension to the fiesta with a free online cooking class. TakeLessons TV will show you how to cook a lime chicken taco bowl with sweet corn and avocado salsa. You’ll also mix up a pineapple-mint agua fresca drink.

You’ll need a soundtrack for the evening, and Spotify has some great Cinco de Mayo playlists. I especially like the one put together by sassyshannah — it will keep you rocking into the wee hours —  as well as listanauta’s compilation of traditional Mexican tunes.

Visit Your Favorite Bar Virtually or Bring a Restaurant Home and Support the Hospitality Industry

If a bar date on Cinco de Mayo is more your speed, Virtual Cheers invites you to create your “night in” while also supporting the hospitality industry. By downloading a Zoom background from your favorite watering hole, you “purchase a round,” with all proceeds going to employee relief efforts. In the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, Latin-American bar Leyenda offers a paloma, a refreshing tequila cocktail with a grapefruit-flavored soda mixer.

Tanteo Tequila + The Wayland’s “Party in Place” will deliver a margarita party package in NYC in concert with cocktail-caterer Cocktails in Motion, keeping you safe at home while also benefiting hospitality workers via The LEE Initiative.

Show your support to local restaurants offering to bring the fiesta to you. The East End’s Bistro Ete and K Pasa will put together a takeout package covering the entire Cinco de Mayo celebration from margaritas to dessert.

A Stay-at-Home Trip to Margaritaville

No Cinco de Mayo celebration would be complete with some sort of margarita.

There are many traditional margarita recipes using either fresh limes or Rose’s lime juice. I’ve listed some of the ones devised by mixologists at hotels and restaurants that go beyond tradition to inspire you to invent your own new favorites with ingredients that won’t be impossible to find.

You can also opt for a pre-made margarita mix like Lt Blender’s Margarita in a Bag. Just add tequila and Triple Sec or Cointreau and freeze the entire bag to make a slushy margarita.

This video from Andaz Mayakoba Resort Riviera Maya shows you all the right steps to create the classic version.

PATRON offers a twist using coconut and cucumber:

1.5 oz. PATRÓN Silver

2 oz. coconut water

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

½  oz. simple syrup

7 thin slices of cucumber, 3 for garnish

Guavarita

For something fruitier, try a Guavarita, a specialty at Hotel Xcaret Mexico:

1.5 oz. guava nectar

3 oz. tequila reposado

garnish with a lime wedge

O'Rita

Mustang Harry’s gives the margarita an Irish spin with the O’Rita:

2 oz. El Tesoro silver tequila

1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 oz. simple syrup

1/2 oz. Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

To garnish, turn half a lime husk inside-out to create a “shot glass,” fill with Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey and carefully set on top

My smoky favorite is a Mezcalita that substitutes mezcal for tequila. Add pineapple juice, muddle a piece of roasted pineapple (if you have it), sprinkle in a bit of Cointreau and rim the glass with Tajin, the classic Mexican chili, salt and lime mix (you can order it on Amazon.)

Mezcal Manhattan

Or make it smoky, sweet and bitter with a Mezcal Manhattan from La Esquina NYC:

2 oz. Doña Vega Espadín mezcal

1 oz. sweet Vermouth

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Garnish with an orange peel, maraschino cherry or brandy cherry

Bring on the Food

You can create a Mexican-inspired meal with these four dishes from chefs in North America:

Guacamole is a must-have starter at any Cinco de Mayo fiesta. Solmar Hotels & Resorts shares this recipe for a version with a kick: one ripe avocado, chili pepper, ¼ cup of onion, half a tablespoon of crushed garlic, chopped cilantro, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Guacamole

Serious Eats’ Mexican street corn (elote) is the perfect side salad

Mexican street corn

Mexican Fajitas with Red Sauce and Avocado, courtesy of Velas Resorts, are easy to make with ingredients that you likely already have in your cabinet

For non-meat eaters, food writer ChihYu Smith offers this delicious Paleo recipe for Fish Tacos

Teach Me, Please and Feed Me

If staying at home has made you kind of of lazy and you’d rather have someone else do most of the work, sign up for this margarita making class and happy hour. All you’ll need to do is supply your own tacos.

Jose Cuervo

Jose Cuervo has that covered for you, too. In the spirit of #TakeoutTuesdays and #TacoTuesday, Jose Cuervo is offering to pick up the tab for thousands of taco orders nationwide on Cinco de Mayo. Just tweet a photo of your receipt with the hashtags #CincotoGo and #CuervoContest to @JoseCuervo to be eligible.

And, finally, since this really is a holiday revolving around tequila, you’ll need to know the proper way to taste and drink the potent spirit. Javier Moreno Gomez, tequila and wine sommelier at Grand Residences Riviera Cancun, offers these tips:

Grand Residences Riviera Cancun

To taste the subtleties of tequila, drink it in a wine glass.

Similar to the methods used for wine and other spirits, the basic tasting method is swirl, sniff, sip and swallow.

Check the color; there will be noticeable differences in a reposado or añejo. While color doesn’t affect the flavor, the density or hue can suggest the amount of wood in the tequila and hint towards its complexities.

Swirl the tequila. Look for the legs, the tears of the agave. These suggest essential oils in the tequila and the presence of alcohol. If the tears fall quickly they have less alcohol but if the tears fall slowly you have more alcohol. Swirling the liquid also releases some of the molecules into the air.

Tequila has more alcohol than wine. Different parts of the tequila will have different aromas. Tequila is known to have 600 different aromas including citrus, mint, freshly cut grass, floral, honey, oak, almond, vanilla, butterscotch, chocolate, leather and caramel.

Sip a small amount and hold the tequila in your mouth for about 10 seconds while sucking in a bit of air. Move it around to get it over your tongue, and suck in some air over top of the tequila to bring the aromas up to your nose. Breathe out through your nose before swallowing. There are different taste zones on your tongue — four specific areas for salty, sweet, bitter and sour. Have the tequila wash over the entire tongue.

Swallow and savor the finish and aftertaste. Remember that everything you eat before a sip will affect the taste of the tequila.

Salud!

Why Is This Passover Different from All Other Passovers? Celebrating in Quarantine

Passover is the holiday when Jews throughout the world get together to celebrate the exodus from Egypt. It’s a time when we reflect on what it means to be free and we retell the Passover story, the magid, as a way to provoke new questions, to educate the youngest family members, and to keep the history alive.

This year, Jews are challenged with a different kind of Passover. Families are separated from one another and many of the traditions associated with the holiday, like welcoming strangers, are not possible and are certainly not advisable.  The Passover dinner, the Seder, which initiates the holiday will have to be configured in a different way.

Passover is from April 8-16.  How should we celebrate this year?

Importantly, we need to celebrate Passover. Passover refers to the final plague passing over the Jewish families in the days of Egypt. This year, we pray to have Passover relieve us from the plague of coronavirus and from the plague of social distancing. Our virtual Seders won’t be the same and they won’t be perfect. But the Passover story is an important one about resilience and success, and this year the freedoms we cherish matter more than ever.  We can rely on our memories of Passovers past to guide us as we modify and adapt to our current reality.

The first Seder will be held on the evening of April 8 with many families celebrating a second one as well on April 9.

Making It Happen

This year, you’ll need to be a bit tech-savvy to bring the family together. The easiest way is via Zoom, the online meeting software that allows multiple people to be online at the same time. Download it onto your computer or phone from https://zoom.us/ or with the Zoom app and you’ll be ready to go.  Then, someone can invite each participant with a link to join the meeting, or, in this case, the Seder. Click to join with video and sound and you’ll soon see everyone on your screen.

Courtesy of Park Avenue Synagogue

In addition to having someone coordinate the invitations, you’ll need to appoint someone to take charge of the order of the Seder, similar to how it would be done if you were sitting around a family table in one room.  That person, the leader, will then call on participants to read sections from the Haggadah, which sets forth the order of the Seder and its contents, or ask attendees to comment on questions that will personalize the Seder for your family.

What Does a Seder Mean Right Now

In these unprecedented times, the Seder lends itself to many applications to the present.  For example, when you discuss the ten plagues that Moses invoked on the Egyptians to convince Pharaoh to allow the Jews religious freedom, you might want to relate the plagues to what is happening right now with a different set of plagues: the plague of disease, the plague of scarcity of food and supplies, the plague of unemployment and so on.

The Four Cups of Wine take on new importance this year, too.  Wine was considered a royal drink in the past, and hence drinking wine meant that you were free. While there is no concrete reason why we drink four cup at a Seder (or even three or two), we still need to remind ourselves that we are free, even though it may not seem that way right now. No one will argue that wine this year will also help us relax and recline (as you’re supposed to on Passover) during this difficult time.

There are numerous other opportunities to increase the relevance of the Passover story to our present situation.

A Seder by the Books

The contents of the Seder (which means order), can be found by downloading any number of Haggadot (try https://www.haggadot.com/clip-search for some suggestions or how to make your own). The Haggadah will help you track through the Seder’s dozen or so steps:

1. Candle Lighting

2. Blessing of the Wine (Kadesh)– drink the first cup of wine

3. Washing the Hands (Urhatz) – a perfect opportunity to mention why this is so important right now

4. Karpas – dipping greens into salt water as a symbol of Spring and new beginnings but marked by tears

5. Yahatz – with three pieces of matzoh, take the middle piece and break it in half, setting aside the larger piece as the afikoman (the final piece eaten as dessert). While this was said to symbolize the breaking of the Ten Commandments or the parting of the Red Sea when the Israelites fled Egypt, perhaps this “breaking” can refer to the “broken” existence that is now being shared throughout the world.  It’s a perfect time to stop and reflect on what it means to you today.

6. Magid – the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.  It includes the explanation of the symbolic items on the Seder plate (as best as you can create one), recitation of the Four Questions by the youngest present, traditional Passover songs and readings of a variety of explanatory passages. Drink the second cup of wine.

7. Washing the Hands – another 20-second reminder of what is happening at present.

8. Blessing the Matzoh  (Hamotzi) – giving thanks that we have food to eat and can share it with our families and friends

9. Maror – eating something bitter like horseradish as a remembrance of the mortar that the Israelites used to build the bricks for the Egyptians’ buildings

10. Charoset – eating a sweet mix of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine, together with some Maror on Matzoh, a Hillel sandwich, sweetness with a remembrance of bitterness. Perhaps you’d like to mention what you feel you’re missing at the moment?  And what you’re grateful for?

11. Dinner – drink the third cup of wine

12. The tradition of Elijah’s Cup and Miriam’s Cup (pouring the Fifth cup of wine for Elijah and a cup of water for Miriam) – welcoming the prophet Elijah to the Seder and recognizing Miriam’s well that provided water for the Israelites while in the desert. The symbolism of Elijah as a virtual guest is more apparent than ever this year.

13. Conclude the Seder and drink the fourth cup of wine.

Making It Your Own

While some of these steps may be difficult to execute this year, you can adjust what you might remember from past Seders to the reality of what we have to use at this moment.  It’s important to accept that you might not have a perfect Seder, and that’s fine. If you don’t have all the ingredients or you don’t have a Seder plate, you will still have a Seder as long as you come together and recite the Passover story.

The Seder can be as long as you want it to be, and you can choose to forego the order and leave the dinner part to the end if that works best for you, following the pre-meal steps of the Seder on Zoom and then signing off to dine. You could also decide to reconvene afterward  to have some schmooze time and to reflect on what the closing statement, “Next Year in Jerusalem” might truly mean as we self-quarantine now and think ahead.

Planning a trip to NYC?