twi-ny recommended events

STAR TREK DAY (with live Q&As)

Who: Mica Burton, Sonequa Martin-Green, David Ajala, Alex Kurtzman, Michelle Paradise, Wil Wheaton, Cirroc Lofton, Alexander Sidding, Nana Visitor, Armin Shimerman, Terry Farrell, Ira Behr, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, Akela Cooper, Davy Perez, George Takei, Rod Roddenberry, Kate Mulgrew, Robert McNeill, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, Connor Trineer, Mike McMahan, Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes
What: Online celebration of all things Star Trek
Where: CBS All Access and startrek.com
When: Tuesday, September 8, free, select shows streaming at 3:00 am on CBS All Access, panels beginning at 3:00 pm on startrek.com
Why: With so many small and large indoor and outdoor gatherings shut down during the pandemic, one of the industries taking the hardest hit is conventions. On September 8, CBS All Access and startrek.com are adapting by having a major online edition celebrating the Star Trek universe. The pop-culture phenomenon created by Gene Roddenberry continues to impact society and technology fifty-four years after the original series kicked off a three-season run on television in 1966, spreading to the big screen and the internet, with numerous live-action movies, prequels, sequels, and animated tales.

The first episode of Star Trek, The Man Trap, aired on NBC on September 8; this September 8, CBS All Access will be streaming twelve hours of shows from all over the Trek map, followed by eight live discussions on the official Star Trek site, all free. The event will be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton and feature panels dedicated to Discovery, Deep Space Nine, Strange New Worlds, Voyager, Enterprise, Lower Decks, the original series, and The Next Generation and Picard, with more than three dozen ST veterans participating, including George Takei, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, Robert Picardo, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Patrick Stewart, and Jonathan Frakes. May they all live long and prosper.

NICK CORDERO MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Who: Friends, family, and colleagues of Broadway actor Nick Cordero
What: Livestreamed tribute to Nick Cordero
Where: Broadway on Demand
When: Sunday, September 6, free, 7:00
Why: The Broadway community has been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis, from the shuttering of theaters to such mainstays as Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sara Bareilles, Aaron Tveit, Laura Bell Bundy, John Benjamin Hickey, Bryan Cranston, Danny Burstein and Rebecca Luker, and Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams contracting the virus. It has also claimed the lives of playwright Terrence McNally, beloved character actor Mark Blum, and, most notably, Tony-nominated Canadian star Nick Cordero, who first had to have one of his legs amputated, then passed away on July 5 at the age of forty-one, leaving behind his wife, Amanda Kloots, and their one-year-old son, Elvis. On September 6 at 7:00, Broadway on Demand is hosting a memorial tribute to Cordero, featuring friends, family, and cast members from all of his shows, including A Bronx Tale, Bullets over Broadway, Rock of Ages, The Toxic Avenger, and Waitress. It’s free to tune in, but the audience is encouraged to text CORDERO to 41444 to donate to Save the Music, a nonprofit that “helps students, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music.”

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY IN CENTRAL PARK: WALK WITH THE WIND

Who: Marquis Hill Quartet, Michael Thomas Trio
What: Live outdoor concerts presented by Giant Step Arts
Where: The Mall in Central Park
When: Saturday, September 5, and Sunday, September 6, free, 1:00
Why: As New York City opens up bit by bit, many of us are still starving for live, in-person entertainment. You can check out some hot jazz this weekend in Central Park, where Giant Step Arts continues its “Walk with the Wind” series with a pair of outdoor shows for free, on the Mall in Central Park. On Saturday at 1:00, the Marquis Hill Quartet will be playing, featuring Tivon Pennicott on tenor sax. Russell Hall on bass, Michael Ode on drums, and Chicago star Marquis Hill on trumpet. On Sunday at 1:00, the Michael Thomas Trio takes over, with Edward Perez on bass, E. J. Strickland on drums, and Grammy winner Michael Thomas on sax. Founded by photographers Jimmy and Dena Katz, Giant Step Arts describes itself as “an innovative, artist-focused nonprofit organization [that] presents one of a kind performances by modern jazz masters.” Given the pandemic lockdown and the state of the country right now, these two-set shows certainly qualify as one of a kind.

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: 7 DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS

Marina Abramović in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas in 2019 (photo by Marco Anelli, courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives)

Who: Marina Abramović, Willem Dafoe, Hera Hyesang Park, Selene Zanetti, Leah Hawkins, Gabriella Reyes, Nadezhda Karyazina, Adela Zaharia, Lauren Fagan
What: Livestreamed opera/performance hybrid
Where: STAATSOPER.TV, BR-Klassik Concert, and ARTE concert
When: Saturday, September 5, free, 12:30 (available through October 7)
Why: In December 2013, Serbian-born, New York-based multidisciplinary performance artist Marina Abramović presented The Life and Death of Marina Abramović at Park Ave. Armory, an audiovisual spectacle directed by Robert Wilson, with Abramović playing herself and her mother and Willem Dafoe as the Narrator. Abramović is now looking at a different kind of fictional finality with 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, an operatic work currently being staged in person to a limited, socially distanced audience at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. The multimedia piece explores seven doomed characters portrayed by American-born Greek opera legend Maria Callas in La Traviata, Tosca, Otello, Madame Butterfly, Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Norma, embodied here by Hera Hyesang Park, Selene Zanetti, Leah Hawkins, Gabriella Reyes, Nadezhda Karyazina, Adela Zaharia, and Lauren Fagan, who face consumption, jumping, strangulation, hara-kiri, knifing, madness, and burning; Abramović herself brings to life the demise of Callas. In addition, Dafoe appears in seven films with Abramović.

“For twenty-five years I have wanted to create a work dedicated to the life and art of Maria Callas. I had read all the biographies about her, listened to her extraordinary voice, and watched film recordings of her performances. Like me she was a Sagittarius,” Abramović writes in her autobiography, Durch Mauern gehen. “I was always fascinated by her personality, her life — and her death. Like so many of the characters she portrayed on stage, she died for love. She died of a broken heart.” Abramović designed the sets with Anna Schöttl, wrote the libretto with Petter Skavlan, and directs with Lynsey Peisinger; the music is by Marko Nikodijević and conducted by Yoel Gamzou and features Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper. The September 5 show will be streamed live at 12:30 EDT and will be available for free viewing through October 7.

NUALA CLARKE: so i have observed

Nuala Clarke, still from so i have observed (part two of five), five-part video, 2020 (funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon)

Who: Nuala Clarke
What: Live discussion about so i have observed video series
Where: Zoom
When: Saturday, September 5, free with RSVP, 3:00
Why: During the pandemic, Irish artist Nuala Clarke created so i have observed, a five-part video that incorporates images from her series The Dream Drawing with text from Irish alchemist Robert Boyle’s 1664 Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours and her own dreams, with music by experimental composer Roarke Menzies. “I have sometimes thought it worth while to take notice, whether or no the Colours of Opacous Bodies might not appear to the Eye somewhat Diversify’d, not only by the Disposition of the Superficial parts of the Bodyes themselves and by the Position of the Eye in Reference to the Object and the Light, (for these things are Notorious enough;) but according also to the Nature of the Lucid Body that shines upon them,” Boyle writes in Experiment VII. The camera goes from shots of Clarke’s works on paper, seemingly floating in space, to scenes of her at work, washing her hands, folding clothing, at the beach, and wearing a mask, as she delivers the narration in voice-over. The first four videos total about twenty-three minutes, while the final one is eighteen minutes and features a score by Menzies.

Nuala Clarke will discuss her new video series on September 5 at 3:00 (photo courtesy Nuala Clarke)

“And then I see it in front of me, emerging from the dark. A body drawing is how I thought of it,” Clarke eloquently relates in part two, as shafts of light shine on abstract shapes twisting unhurriedly. “It was suspended, not square, paperlike, connected at points along the way, white and gold, curved, lungs, voids among the turning spaces. I woke slowly, remembering, made a drawing, and kept it in my mind’s eye.” On September 5 at 3:00, Clarke will host an informal and unrehearsed Zoom conversation in conjunction with the virtual opening of so i have observed. Having participated back in 2010 with Menzies and others in a performance Clarke curated for her show “You Delight Me” on Shelter Island, we are very familiar with the multidisciplinary approach she takes with all of her work, so we are excited about hearing her discuss this beautifully poetic project that deals with loneliness and loss, nature and beauty, centered around color. Be sure to check out the videos here first.

TICKET ALERT: MAGIC IN PLAIN SIGHT — A SERIES OF FREE SOCIALLY DISTANCED PERFORMANCES IN SUNSET PARK

Target Margin Theater is bringing people together at storefronts and inside for “Magic in Plain Sight” and “Electric Feeling Maybe”

Target Margin Theater
The Doxsee and nearby locations
232 52nd St. in Sunset Park
October 10, 17, 24, and 30, free with advance RSVP, 7:00 & 8:00
www.targetmargin.org/magic

Target Margin Theater is among the first troupes returning to in-person programming. “Magic in Plain Sight,” a series of pop-up presentations that deal with loss and loneliness, is taking place October 10, 17, 24, and 30 at 7:00 and 8:00 in its Doxsee space in Sunset Park as well as in nearby storefronts, parking lots, and other locations. Admission is free, but you must RSVP in advance; only ten people at a time can watch from the sidewalk. “‘Magic in Plain Sight’ is one of the ways we at Target Margin Theater often talk about how a theatrical event should feel,” founding artistic director David Herskovits said in a statement. “As we all crave for ways to connect and safely gather, we wanted to create a public event that celebrates what we have lost and the wonder that remains. This is the magic in plain sight for all of us to experience.” Each night concludes with “Electric Feeling Maybe,” a thirty-minute gathering with music, movement, and language that explores the concept of touch and people being together. The piece is created by Ali Andre Ali, Will Badgett, Purva Bedi, Leonie Bell, Ebony Burton, Rawya El-Chab, Jesse Freedman, Mary Neufeld, Grace Orr, Stephanie Weeks, and Herskovits, who also directs. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now if you’re ready to start making limited forms of contact and connection and are in dire need of live (socially distanced) performance.

BROADWAY RELIEF PROJECT LIVE BENEFIT CONCERTS

Vinny Pastore’s Gangster Squad played a live benefit for the Nick Cordero Fund at Open Jar Studios (photo courtesy Broadway Relief Project)

Who: Teal Wicks, Kate Baldwin, Brandon Victor Dixon, Eva Noblezada
What: Live concerts to be seen in person and online, presented by Broadway Relief Project
Where: Open Jar Studios, 1601 Broadway between Forty-Eighth & Forty-Ninth Sts., eleventh floor
When: September 4-11 (more to come), $5 – $90, 8:00
Why: Just as many schools are starting up again in a hybrid format, a mix of in-person and virtual learning, Open Jar Studios is doing the same with concerts. The Broadway Relief Project kicked off August 21 with a concert by Joshua Henry at the Theater District venue, where a fully masked crowd of forty-eight (in a space that can hold up to three hundred) watched from individual seats separated by plexiglass, with a specially designed air system and no one within twenty feet of the band; you can also join in via livestream here. That was followed August 22 by Jay Armstrong Johnson and August 30 by Vinny Pastore’s Gangster Squad; each performer chooses what charity they want proceeds to go to. “It’s been remarkable to be able to bring a live audience together for the first time in over five months and to see the emotional reception the artists are receiving,” Open Jar Studios owner Jeff Whiting said in a statement. “The cooperation with the city and these Broadway artists has been key to the development of this socially distant space, and it’s been a wonderful challenge to find safe ways to get audiences together to enjoy these Broadway stars.”

Next up is Teal Wicks (Wicked, The Cher Show) on September 4 ($35-$50), benefiting One Tree Planted, followed by Tony nominee Kate Baldwin (Big Fish, Hello, Dolly!) on September 5 ($35-$50), benefiting Active Minds; Tony, Emmy, and Grammy nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (Hamilton, Shuffle Along) on September 6 ($70-$90), benefiting the WeAre Foundation; and two-time Tony nominee and Grammy winner Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon, Hadestown) on September 11 ($70-$90, charity TBA). Keep watching this space for more announcements.