This Valentine’s Day, why not set a new sort of record? See an intimate performance at your local record shop, when romantic comedy Love and Vinyl opens at Byrdland Records (1264 Fifth St. NE).
The author of Love and Vinyl is Maryland-based playwright and long-time professor of theatre at Bowie State University, Bob Bartlett. He is no stranger to staging his work in unusual locations.
A few years ago, Bartlett premiered his time-bending comedy, The Accident Bear, which sold out its five-week run to critical acclaim, at a working coin-operated laundromat in historic downtown Annapolis, Maryland. He staged Lýkos Ánthrōpo at Historic Congressional Cemetery last year.
Bartlett wrote Love and Vinyl on a dare from colleagues who challenged him to write a comedy about vinyl lovers who had sword off romance. Like himself. In the play, best friends Bogie and Zane visit their local record store, but “leave with more than a stack of vinyl,” Barlett wrote in a release.
The play will open at Byrdland Records the day before Valentine’s and play until March 9. It’s an exclusive performance, given that the production will only seat 30 guests per performance.
“Record stores,” Bartlett adds, “are numinous, nostalgic spaces where we discover new music, friends and sometimes lovers while browsing for records, a ritual we almost lost to digital music,” beliefs and sentiments he mines in his play. “The opportunity to share the play with audiences at Byrdland Records,” he adds, “is truly special, and opening the run of the play around Valentine’s Day is romantically writ in the stars.”
Advances Tickets Only. Byrdlandrecords.com
