twi-ny recommended events

P.S.

Ars Nova
Tickets on sale through October 21 or until sold out, $35
Letters are sent for one year
arsnovanyc.com/PS

With theaters closed because of the pandemic, companies have been coming up with unique ways to share stories with a hungry public. Woolly Mammoth’s Human Resources is a labyrinthine journey through prerecorded phone messages, while On Site Opera used the telephone to transmit a live song cycle, supplemented with emails, for To My Distant Love. Ars Nova is now going even more analog in this virtual world with P.S., using the much-maligned U.S. Post Office, particularly relevant as mail-in voting is a key issue in the current presidential election. Created by director Teddy Bergman (KPOP, Empire Travel Agency) and cowriters Sam Chanse (Trigger, Fruiting Bodies) and Amina Henry (The Animals, Bully), P.S. is a durational theatrical experience that takes place in the audience’s own homes, with no digital interaction whatsoever. Limited to only five hundred $35 tickets on sale through October 21 (or until they are sold out), P.S. consists of letters exchanged between a pair of childhood friends, young women of color from a small Oregon town now navigating a contemporary America that is facing more division than ever, from racism and police brutality to misogyny and government corruption, from a health crisis and white supremacy to income inequality and social media strife. Ticket holders will receive the letters every few weeks over the course of a year as the tale plays out in real time beginning in November. There will also be an in-person grand finale once theaters are allowed to reopen, with separate tickets made available first to those households that participated in the epistolary part of the show.

AROUND DAY’S END: A CONVERSATION

Architectural model for David Hammons’s Day’s End sits outside related exhibition at the Whitney (Catherine Seavitt and Rennie Jones of Guy Nordenson and Associates, 2017 / photograph by Ron Amstutz)

Who: Elena Filipovic, Frances Richard, Judith Rodenbeck, Randal Wilcox, Laura Phipps
What: Online discussion about “Around Day’s End: Downtown New York 1970-1986” exhibition
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art Zoom
When: Thursday, October 15, free with advance RSVP, 6:00; Tuesday, October 27, free with advance RSVP, 6:30
Why: In 1975, land artist and anarchitecture specialist Gordon Matta-Clark deconstructed an abandoned industrial building on Pier 52 on the Manhattan riverfront, cutting into the walls, doors, and floors and turning it into a unique kind of performance art piece, at least until the police shut it down and arrested him. You can watch Matta-Clark’s twenty-three-minute silent film about the project, which he called a “temple to sun and water,” here. American artist David Hammons is revisiting Matta-Clark’s intervention, known as Day’s End, by constructing his own version on the same site for the Whitney, which is right across the street. It is expected to be completed in December; in the meantime, the Whitney is presenting “Around Day’s End: Downtown New York 1970-1986,” a small show in the first-floor gallery that explores art depicting the waterfront area at the time, when it was known as a gay cruising hotspot. Among the photographs, drawings, sculpture, video, and paintings in the exhibition, which continues through November 1, are Dawoud Bey’s David Hammons, Pissed Off performance photos, Christo’s Package on Hand Truck, Joan Jonas’s Songdelay video, Martha Rosler’s The Bowery photo and text series, David Wojnarowicz and Kiki Smith’s Untitled (Psychiatric Clinic: Department of Hospitals), Anton van Dalen’s Street Woman on Car, Peter Hujar’s Canal Street Piers: Fake Men on the Stairs, and Carol Goodden’s documentation of Matta-Clark’s Jacks, in addition to works by Alvin Baltrop, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jimmy Wright, and G. Peter Jemison and a vitrine of proposed projects for Pier 18 from Mel Bochner, Robert Morris, William Wegman, Richard Serra, Harry Shunk, János Kender, and Matta-Clark.

On October 15 at 6:00, the Whitney is hosting a virtual discussion about the exhibit, focusing on Baltrop, Hammons, Jonas, and Matta-Clark, with Elena Filipovic, author of David Hammons: Bliz-aard Ball Sale; Frances Richard, author of Gordon Matta-Clark: Physical Poetics; Judith Rodenbeck, associate professor and chair of media & cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside; and Randal Wilcox, who worked with Baltrop and is a trustee of the Alvin Baltrop Trust. The free Zoom talk will be moderated by assistant curator Laura Phipps, who organized the show with senior curatorial assistant Christie Mitchell. Phipps and Mitchell follow that up October 27 at 6:30 with the Zoom discussion “Community Conversation: Around Day’s End,” teaming up with the Hudson River Park Trust, the Meatpacking Business Improvement District, and Manhattan’s Community Board 2 to look at the project from a different angle.

HISPANICIZE #UnidosTogether VIRTUAL SUMMIT

Who: Jessica Flores, Enrique Sapene, John Leguizamo, Edward James Olmos, Jessica Alba, Oscar De La Hoya, Mario Lopez, Carlos Ponce, Melissa Fumero, Xolo Mariduena, Aymee Nuviola, Laith Ashley, Ellen Ochoa, Pitizion, Victor Ramos, RaqC, Rebecca Antonia Rodriguez, Kim Guerra, John Henry, Julian Castro, more
What: Live virtual gathering of Latinx influencers, content creators, entrepreneurs
Where: Hispanicize
When: Thursday, October 15, free with RSVP, noon – 6:00
Why: Hispanicize is following up its July 1 summit, which you can watch here, with another virtual gathering of Latinx creators and influencers, this time in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and with an eye to the upcoming presidential election. The Hispanicize #UnidosTogether Virtual Summit is taking place October 15 from noon to 6:00, including keynote addresses, roundtable discussions, performances, and breakout sessions featuring appearances by Jessica Flores, Enrique Sapene, John Leguizamo, Edward James Olmos, Jessica Alba, Carlos Ponce, Melissa Fumero, Xolo Mariduena, Aymee Nuviola, Laith Ashley, Ellen Ochoa, Pitizion, Victor Ramos, RaqC, Rebecca Antonia Rodriguez, Kim Guerra, Father Augustino Torres, John Henry, Julian Castro, and many more, hosted by Jessica Flores and Enrique Sapene. Below are only some of the special events; you can also check out Hispanicize’s VODcasts here.

DJ Mando Fresko Pre-Show, 11:30

Welcome & Blessing, with cohosts Jessica Flores and Enrique Sapene, noon

Keynote: Jessica Alba in conversation with Anne Vazquez, 12:15

Latinx Hollywood, with Julissa Calderon, Melissa Fumero, Ben Lopez, and Xolo Maridueña, 12:45

Latinx Unity & Empowerment, with Kim Guerra, John Leguizamo, Edward James Olmos, Monica Ramirez, and Claudia Romo Edelman, 1:15

Keynote: Oscar De La Hoya in conversation with Mario Lopez, 2:30

Latin Music Industry: Rising Stars, with Mariah Angeliq, Pitizon, Byron Salas, Anaid Quijada, and RaqC, 3:30

Hispanic Kitchen with Chef Eddie Garza, 4:15

Latinx Vote 2020, with Cristela Alonzo, Mayra Macias, Mike Madrid, Alicia Menendez, and , 5:10Henry Muñoz III

Meet Andrekza: Dim Mak En Fuego’s First Latina Artist, 5:45

DJ Chava & After Party, 6:00

GLITCH FEMINISM: A MANIFESTO BOOK LAUNCH WITH ZOE LEONARD AND AUTHOR LEGACY RUSSELL

Legacy Russell and Zoe Leonard will discuss Glitch Feminism and more at SVA talk

Who: Zoe Leonard, Legacy Russell
What: Virtual book launch
Where: School of Visual Arts Zoom
When: Thursday, October 15, free with RSVP, 11:00 am
Why: In December 2012, curator, writer, and artist Legacy Russell coined the term “Glitch Feminism,” writing in The Society Pages, “In a society that conditions the public to find discomfort or outright fear in the errors and malfunctions of our socio-cultural mechanics — illicitly and implicitly encouraging an ethos of ‘Don’t rock the boat!’ — a ‘glitch’ becomes an apt metonym. Glitch Feminism, however, embraces the causality of ‘error,’ and turns the gloomy implication of glitch on its ear by acknowledging that an error in a social system that has already been disturbed by economic, racial, social, sexual, and cultural stratification and the imperialist wrecking-ball of globalization — processes that continue to enact violence on all bodies — may not, in fact, be an error at all, but rather a much-needed erratum. This glitch is a correction to the ‘machine,’ and, in turn, a positive departure. This glitch I speak of here calls for a breaking from the hegemony of a ‘structured system’ infused with the pomp and circumstance of patriarchy, one that for all too long has marginalized female-identified bodies, and continues to offend our sensibilities by giving us only a piece of the pie and assuming our satisfaction.” Russell, a New York City native who is associate curator of exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, has expanded those ideas into a book, Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto (Verso, September 2020, $14.95), which focuses on online representation, gender, and the body and features such chapters as “Glitch Refuses,” “Glitch Throws Shade,” “Glitch Is Skin,” “Glitch Is Remix,” and “Glitch Survives.” She writes in the introduction, “A body that pushes back at the application of pronouns, or remains indecipherable within binary assignment, is a body that refuses to perform the score. This nonperformance is a glitch. This glitch is a form of refusal.”

On October 15 at 11:00 am, Russell will be joined by artist, activist, and New York native Zoe Leonard for a book launch hosted by the School of Visual Arts, discussing cyberfeminism and systems of oppression. Primarily a photographer and sculptor, Leonard is most well known for her 1992 poem “I want a president,” a large-scale version of which was installed on the High Line in October 2016. The poem was written in support of the independent presidential candidacy of poet Eileen Myles running against George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot and begins, “I want a dyke for president. I want a person with AIDS for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn’t have a choice about getting leukemia.” Prepare for a lively and energetic talk; admission is free with advance RSVP.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS — SAM MOYER: DOORS FOR DORIS

Sam Moyer’s Doors for Doris is a tribute to public art champion Doris C. Freedman (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Sam Moyer, Daniel S. Palmer
What: Public Art Fund livestreamed discussion about Sam Moyer: Doors for Doris
Where: Cooper Union Zoom
When: Wednesday, October 14, free with RSVP, 5:00 (sculpture on view in Doris C. Freedman Plaza through August 28, 2021)
Why: “Contemporary public sculpture presents a new visual and emotional experience, a challenge to our senses and sensibilities,” philanthropist Doris Chanin Freedman said back in the late 1970s. “Sculpture that confronts us on our way to work, or on our daily errands, is no longer the remote object belonging to the world of galleries and museums but a special component of our daily lives.” Freedman, who passed away in November 1981 at the age of fifty-three, was a champion of outdoor art in New York City, having served as the first director of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, president of the Municipal Art Society, and president of City Walls as well as being host of WNYC’s Artists in the City and founder of the Public Art Fund; since 1977, PAF has installed site-specific commissions on what was christened, after her death, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, which stands at the entrance to Central Park on Fifth Ave. at Sixtieth St. known as Scholar’s Gate. The dedication plaque reads in part, “As a pioneer in the field of public art, Doris Freedman labored tirelessly to enliven and humanize the urban environment. The people of the City of New York are the beneficiaries of her vision.”

Sam Moyer will participate in a virtual Public Art Fund Talk about her new sculptural installation on Doris C. Freedman Plaza (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn-based artist Sam Moyer, who was born in Chicago shortly after Freedman died, has paid tribute to her with the three-part sculpture Doors for Doris, a trio of partially open entryways to the park on the plaza named for her. (You can see our online slideshow of the work here.) Constructed of indigenous New York granite and Bluestone, concrete slabs, and discarded marble from such countries as Brazil, China, India, and Italy that Moyer found around the city, Doors for Doris offers passersby a new way to walk into or out of the park, honoring the woman who fought for artists to be able to live in their SoHo studios and for civic construction projects to include public art in their budgets. The international nature of the material and the not-fully-open doors reference not only New York City as a melting pot but the need for immigration reform; it also outlines such issues as income inequality, combining standard concrete with marble scraps tossed away from kitchen redesigns and fancy building lobbies. Freedman’s father was architect and real estate developer Irwin S. Chanin, the namesake of the Chanin Building across from Grand Central, an Art Deco skyscraper that features a bronze relief of evolution scenes on its facade in addition to a bas-relief by Edward Trumbull and a terracotta frieze. So it’s more than apt that on October 14 at 5:00, PAF is hosting an artist talk in conjunction with the Cooper Union, home to the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Moyer, who also makes abstract hand-painted canvases composed of stone, marble, terrazzo concrete, and travertine on MDF panels in addition to oil on Bristol and works made of fused glass, will be speaking with PAF curator Daniel S. Palmer.

TWI-NY TALK: IGOR GOLYAK AND DARYA DENISOVA OF STATE vs. NATASHA BANINA

Darya Denisova gives a bold performance made for Zoom in State vs. Natasha Banina

STATE VS. NATASHA BANINA
Baryshnikov Arts Center online
Cherry Orchard Festival
Monday, October 12, and Wednesday, October 14, free with RSVP, 8:00
bacnyc.org
www.arlekinplayers.com

In my June 21 review of State vs. Natasha Banina, I wrote that “the future of online productions might be best represented so far by Arlekin Players Theatre’s State vs. Natasha Banina.” Part of the Cherry Orchard Festival, the forty-five-minute solo play is an online adaptation of the Boston troupe’s version of Yaroslava Pulinovich’s Natasha’s Dream, which deals with mental illness and, perhaps, murder. The extraordinary interactive work — the audience serves as a jury — is directed by company founding artistic director Igor Golyak and stars his partner, Darya Denisova, who is brave and mesmerizing as Natasha. What began as a handful of live performances has blossomed into a virtual national tour, with Arlekin teaming with arts organizations around the country to put on the play, complete with an integral talk afterward in which Golyak and Denisova are likely to reveal some of their theatrical secrets.

Among the play’s countless fans is Mikhail Baryshnikov, who is bringing the production to the Baryshnikov Arts Center (online, not in person) on October 12 and 14 at 8:00; tickets are free with advance RSVP. The October 12 show will be followed by a talkback with music critic and Beginner’s Ear founder Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, while the October 14 postshow discussion will feature actress Jessica Hecht, who is planning on working with the troupe soon. As they prepare for the BAC shows, Golyak, who runs the Igor Golyak Acting Studio, and Denisova, who teaches there, answered some questions about their sudden success and the future of theater.

twi-ny: For those previously unfamiliar with your company, you have staged innovative adaptations of The Seagull, Dead Man’s Diary, and The Stone, among others, that create unique relationships between audience and performer. When you were looking for a play to take online, what was it about Natasha that made you think it was ripe for virtual reimagining?

igor golyak: First of all, the subject matter of systems failing young people felt really relevant today, so the theme was definitely an inspiration. This is generally how we approach text at Arlekin; I want to have a discussion with the audience about subject matter, not a lesson plan, but pose a question around a point of pain in me and the collaborators.

twi-ny: Natasha has become a viral sensation, one of the most-talked-about and widely praised online productions during the pandemic. What has that experience been like?

ig: The experience has been overwhelming. Being an immigrant theater with our accent not just in language but in the approach to the theater, we feel understood.

twi-ny: Darya, during the show, you call out some of the names of the people watching, but you can’t see them over Zoom. What’s it like giving such an intimate, courageous performance without a visible audience?

darya denisova: Actually, there is a seventy-inch monitor right in front of me, so I do see the audience at certain points. It is very inspiring when audience members choose to keep their videos on; I get to see their facial expressions, their emotions, and how people change during the course of the performance. This makes the connection between me and the audience very real.

twi-ny: One of your fans is Mikhail Baryshnikov, and on October 12 and 14, you will be performing the show for the Baryshnikov Arts Center. You have been able to essentially tour the show online, creating a new model, collaborating with organizations across the world. How did that come about?

ig: We work with two amazing touring producers, Sara Stackhouse of BroadBand and Maria Shclover and Irina Shabshis of the Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation, who have strategized around how the show lives and where it is presented next. It is an incredible feeling being able to present the show in different languages with subtitles live to an audience across the globe. We are not only touring with theaters but also with film festivals, which opened a new door to virtual theater. We don’t know where this is going and what’s next, as this has not really existed before, but we are eager to find out.

twi-ny: Do you find audience reaction different depending on which organization you are partnering with? Do the reactions change with the geographic location of the organization?

ig: Great question; yes it does! We have had only one not guilty verdict with an all-immigrant audience. However, I will say that all our audience members are sophisticated theatergoers, and the discussions that take place postshow are extremely thoughtful and lively.

dd: The audience reactions are different at every show, and so is the connection. I don’t think geographic locations matter — Natasha’s story is universal; it could happen anywhere.

twi-ny: You mentioned different languages. The play is sometimes performed in Russian. Does it feel different compared to when you do it in English?

ig: Yes, the play in Russian feels a little more authentic; being artists from that part of the world, we really know the character. The character, not the language, is sometimes difficult to translate. I can’t generalize, but in Russia, people view for example drunks or alcoholics as having a difficult life and feel more pity for them maybe because they can relate. In America, I feel it is more black and white. So I guess what I am saying, Dostoyevsky couldn’t have written Crime and Punishment here in the US. I don’t know if it is good or bad, probably good, but these are just my subjective observations. By the way, these are the questions that an immigrant from Russia grapples with their whole life.

Director Igor Golyak, seen here at Arlekin’s tenth anniversary celebration last year, is reinventing online theater with State vs. Natasha Banina

twi-ny: What has the success of Natasha meant for Arlekin? At a talkback that I attended, you noted that on the other side of this, you were going to continue exploring technical innovation over the internet in addition to in-person productions. What do you see as the future of the company, especially now that you have a global fan base that goes far beyond your fifty-seat theater in Boston?

ig: Glad you asked. In addition to our in-person live theater, we will be announcing the creation of a virtual theater stage with its own season in the coming days. Stay tuned for a press release.

twi-ny: That’s exciting. When you’re not at home, what do you like to do? Have you gone out much during the pandemic?

dd: I teach acting privately, and I really love what I do. Having a toddler and a dog keeps me outdoors most of the time, which I love.

twi-ny: Igor, do you go out much?

ig: Not enough. It is getting to me. I just came from a meeting at a coffee house and realized that people are not two-dimensional. Revelatory!

TOLERANCE PARTY #2: ROLE CALL

Six strangers reunite for another online adventure in the cell’s Tolerance Party #2: Role Call

Who: Corey Allen, Bob Jaffe, Heather Mo’Witz, Richard Urquiza, India Meñete, Brian Reager, Peyton Rowe
What: Live online interactive performance
Where: The cell theatre online
When: Tuesday, October 13, $5-$25, 8:00
Why: On September 1, the cell theatre premiered the first episode of the interactive online participatory series Tolerance Party, titled “Icebreakers,” in which six strangers get trapped in an existential new world order. The same characters (with one addition) are back for more on October 13 at 8:00 in Tolerance Party #2: Role Call, a collaboration between Nancy Manocherian’s Chelsea theater and DimlyWit Productions. This time around, Corey Allen, Bob Jaffe, Heather Mo’Witz, Richard Urquiza, India Meñete, Brian Reager, and Peyton Rowe come together to perform a play, but they’re not really sure what it’s all about as they face new obstacles and cursed cats; a live chat function encourages the audience to join in the mystery.

Tickets for the show, which was written and directed by cell regular Joseph Hendel (Katzelmacher, U.S.A.; Beware the Ides of Monday), co-conceived by cell artistic director Kira Simring, and features original music by Ricardo Romaneiro, are available on a sliding scale from $5 to $25, depending on what you can afford. This production is online, but the cell is currently hosting the masked, meditative labyrinthine journey Garden of Eden, a collaboration with Dark Matter, in its home on West Twenty-Third St.; extended through December 19 ($10-$40 per person), the interactive installation promises, “Around each corner lies enlightenment. Each dead end is a new beginning.”