This ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Tony winner is now starring in a small local company’s production | Philly Theater Notes

Jane M. Von Bergen rounds up news and notes from Philadelphia’s theater scene on Wednesdays.

Rachel Bay Jones earned a Tony Award in 2017 for her performances as Heidi Hansen in the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen. When the pandemic hit, Jones was in California, working on the Amazon original series, Panic, released in May, in which she plays a tough, yet vulnerable single mother.

So how did Jones, who lives in Manhattan, wind up in a virtual production of The Skin of Our Teeth by Quintessence Theatre Group, the classic repertory theater company based in Mount Airy?

“During the [pandemic] shutdown, when there was nothing going on, not only were we not doing any theater, but we were craving that experience — that experience of doing very personal work in a small theater with an intelligent director,” she said.

That’s when she and her partner, Benim Foster, got a phone call from Quintessence founding artistic director Alexander Burns asking them to take on the roles of Mrs. Maggie Antrobus and Mr. George Antrobus in the Thornton Wilder classic about the fate of a family over the course of 5,000 years.

Foster had performed as Shylock with Quintessence’s 2012 production of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and Jones, who traveled here to watch him on stage, said she came away impressed with Burns, Quintessence, Mount Airy, and Philadelphia.

Burns said it was also an opportunity to return to her regional theater roots.

“You are allowed to do things that might be a little more daring than you would in commercial theater where you are more concerned about pleasing everyone,” she said. “You try to fly higher, because if you belly flop, it’s part of the work.”

Available on demand July 19 through Aug 1. at the Quintessence website, QTGrep.org, or 215-987-4450. Audiences get 72 hours to watch the stream for $29.

Kensington tattoo artist Kristel Oreto’s obsession with tattoos led her to an unusual assignment — a consultant to the writers of Philadelphia Theatre Company’s newly commissioned musical The Tattooed Lady, by Max Vernon and Erin Courtney, along with director and codeveloper Ellie Heyman.

“I always wanted to be the tattooed lady in the circus,” she tells interviewers in The Tattooed Lady: Make Your Mark, a mini documentary about the production of the play directed by Philadelphia Theatre Company artistic director Paige Price.

Besides footage of Oreto, the 22-minute behind-the-scenes documentary includes interviews with the musical’s actors, writers, and producers, plus some song snippets, providing a backstage view of how a play is conceived, written, and produced.

Oreto never did make it to the circus, but she has the tattoos. They cover 75 percent of her body.

“When I’m naked, I look like I have clothes on,” she jokes.

Oreto specializes in covering up unwanted tattoos at her studio, Now and Forever Tattoos in Kensington.

“It was definitely awesome,” Oreto said about being interviewed for the play, set for a 2022 premiere. “They talked about everything with me, wanting to be a tattooer, being a female tattooer in a man’s industry. A lot of people don’t know about the tattoo industry and the tattoo world.”

The documentary is available on the Philadelphia Theatre Company’s YouTube channel via philatheatreco.org.

The pandemic that shuttered Philadelphia’s arts community has also unleashed some incredible creativity. Take, for example, the latest offering from Pig Iron Theatre Co., known for its inventive physical staging.

Designed for two people, with two iPhones, Franklin’s Secret City leads its audience in a production that is part walking tour, part adventure game, and part immersive audio. For most of us, Philadelphia’s historic district is familiar turf, but cowriters Dan Rothenberg and Robert Quillen Camp lead us into an alternative universe — a world of secret societies and inventions that border on magic.

Each audience duo solves a series of puzzles as they explore unexplained spikes in the bioether, a mysterious force that runs through everything. The app for the production is now in beta testing, and it’s free during the testing period, through Sept. 22.

To sign up, visit pigiron.org.

For years, the Cape May Aerodrome had hosted productions by South Jersey playwright Bill Sterritt, who returned to his hometown a few years ago after a long stint in Los Angeles.

The Aerodrome shows are done, but Sterritt and his production company, SPQR Stage, are still at the Shore, with a new space, studio;space, a claw’s toss away from The Crab Trap in Somers Point.

Sterritt’s Wreck of the Spanish Armada, set in Paris and originally produced for the New York International Fringe Festival, is his first production at the new venue.

Sterritt plays a Robin Hood figure opposite New York actress Kerry McGann, cast in the role of a physician in a plot that involves Somali pirates hijacking an oil tanker. All this takes place in studio;space’s 50-seat spot.

Armada plays at 8 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays from July 17 through Aug. 9. Details are at studiospacespnj.com