Jody Oberfelder will activate the endangered West Park Presbyterian Church with Story Time (photo courtesy Jody Oberfelder Projects)
STORY TIME
The Center at West Park
165 West Eighty-Sixth St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, $24–$30, 7:30
www.centeratwestpark.org
www.jodyoberfelder.com
In June 2021, Jody Oberfelder Projects presented Amphitheater activating the endangered East River Park bandshell through live music and dance. At the time, Oberfelder noted that the piece “challenges the pending demolition of this fifty-acre park that transformed Lower Manhattan more than eighty years ago through inscribing the space with our movement inspired from human connections. We believe it is time to be happy again and reconnect with our community through our common joie de vivre, our passion for dance.” Despite a valiant battle that went to the courts, the amphitheater was torn down that December.
A New York–based director, dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, Oberfelder is fighting for another worthy cause with her latest work, Story Time, which takes place throughout the Center at West Park in the landmarked West Park Presbyterian Church, which is also under threat of demolition. On March 8, hundreds of people gathered at a Love Our Landmarks: Save Park West rally to keep the wrecking ball away from the 135-year-old institution, with such special guests as actors Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Laurence Fishburne, Julianna Margulies, and Fisher Stevens and local politicians Mark Levine, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Gale Brewer.
“It would be a tragedy if this landmarked building and thriving community arts hub were demolished — especially given that there is a viable plan to save it,” Manhattan borough president Mark Levine said at the protest. “We cannot allow this vital piece of our city’s history and culture to be lost. We must do everything in our power to protect it. I fully support the community-driven effort to preserve this unique and special place for New Yorkers. I call on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to take immediate action to save this gem. We will not give up the fight.”
Oberfelder, who has also staged works in an officers house on Governors Island, in the 6½ Ave. corridor in midtown Manhattan, in a garden pool at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in Green-Wood Cemetery, in a partially enclosed lot in Brisbane, and in a seventeenth-century baroque palace in Portugal, will be activating Park West on May 16 and 17 at 7:30, leading audience members from the sanctuary on foot to various nooks and crannies holding surprises before bringing myths and fairy tales to life as the audience sits in the historic pews.
The sets are designed by Juergen Riehm, Tine Kindermann, Johanna Maier, and Nick Cassway, with costumes by Katrin Schnabl, lighting by Connor Sale, music by Ellen Reid, Maurice Ravel, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, Frank London, and, playing live, Tine Kindermann and Grace Bergere, and dramaturgy by Rebekah Morin. The piece was conceived, directed, and choreographed by Oberfelder in collaboration with the performers: Mariah Anton, Andi Farley-Shimota, Michael Greenberg, Nyah Malone, and Caleb Patterson.
“Across cultures and time, people have always gathered around stories — to make sense of the world, to find direction, to feel less alone,” Oberfelder said in a statement. “Dance is its own kind of storytelling: fleeting, wordless, yet full of meaning. There’s a Grimm tale that ends, ‘And the mouth of the person who last told this story is still warm.’ That warmth — that sense of something just passed on — is what I hope lingers. I want audiences to arrive with wonder, to follow the threads of their own journey, and perhaps leave seeing themselves as the hero in their own unfolding tale.”
She added via email, “How do we stand up when our country is pushing us down? How do we courageously live and give, redirect and inspire? Art is transformative. I’ve created a piece that I hope, with each turn of the page, addresses dark and light. How do we keep our humanity in this heroic journey? Especially right now, with everything coming at you faster than you can imagine. How do you summon your inner hero to survive?”
Tickets for the immersive, site-specific Story Time are $24–$30 to follow Oberfelder on her never-ending quest to bring unique, often interactive dances that ask all the right questions to unusual and thrilling locations across the globe, including right here in New York City.
And in this case, here’s hoping this fairy tale has a happy ending.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]