twi-ny recommended events

HUDSON RIVER DANCE FESTIVAL 2017

Brian Brooks and Wendy Whelan will be among the participants in the 2017 Hudson River Dance Festival (photo by Erin Baiano)

Who: National Dance Institute, Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE, Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks, Complexions Contemporary Ballet
What: Hudson River Dance Festival
Where: Pier 61 at Chelsea Piers, Hudson River Park
When: Thursday, June 8, and Friday, June 9, free, 6:30
Why: On June 8 and 9, SHS Foundation and the Joyce are presenting the 2017 installment of the annual Hudson River Dance Festival, featuring an impressive lineup of four terrific acts. Former New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan has turned toward contemporary dance for her “Restless Creature” project, which includes Brian Brooks; the two recently performed Some of a Thousand Words at the Joyce. Founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise, the National Dance Institute focuses on programs for children; their appearance at the Hudson River Dance Festival will be followed June 17-19 by “Harlem Night Song” at the Skirball Center. The award-winning Complexions Contemporary Ballet has been promoting dance and unity since 1994; next week, Complexions, led by founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, will be off to Detroit for Star Dust: A David Bowie Tribute. And Brooklyn-based Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE has been incorporating West African movement into its choreography for decades; choreographer and dancer Brown will bring his immensely talented company to the Fire Island Dance Festival July 14-16 and to the New Victory Theater July 27 and August 3. The free Hudson River Dance Festival takes place on Pier 61 at Chelsea Piers; blankets are allowed, but chairs are not.

IVY BALDWIN: KEEN [NO. 2]

Ivy Baldwin explores grief and mourning in Keen [No. 2] at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Maria Baranova)

Abrons Arts Center, the Playhouse
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Thursday – Sunday through June 11, $20
212-598-0400
www.abronsartscenter.org

In her artist statement, Brooklyn-based dancer and choreographer Ivy Baldwin explains, “Choreography is a way of processing the experiences of my life, my dancer’s lives, and the world around us. . . . I love making dance that is mysterious, darkly emotional, embraces absurdity, and explores twisted humor, violence, and human fragility. . . . As an artist, I strive to let my imagination rule the roost, embrace the chaotic and messy, and most importantly, to be present, open-minded, and brave.” Baldwin opens herself up bravely in her latest evening-length piece, Keen [No. 2], which continues at Abrons Arts Center June 8-11. Co-commissioned by Abrons Arts Center, the Chocolate Factory, and the Joyce as part of Joyce Unleashed, a program that presents experimental off-site works, it is a follow-up to Keen (Part 1), which began Baldwin’s exploration of mourning, grief, rituals, and loneliness following the loss of her longtime friend, dancer, and muse, Lawrence Cassella, who died on January 28, 2016, from the immune system disease HLH. Keen (Part 1) took place at the Glass House in Connecticut, where Anna Carapetyan, Eleanor Smith, Katie Workum, and Baldwin performed inside a glassed-in room (with the audience outside) and along the grounds. (You can see excerpts here.) Keen [No. 2] continues many of the same themes indoors at Abrons, where Baldwin will be joined by Smith and Workum in addition to Anna Adams Stark, Katie Dean, Marya Wethers, Dia Dearstyne, Heather Olson, Kay Ottinger, Tara Sheena, and Tara Willis. The set design is by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, who contributed the twisted paper sculptures for Baldwin’s Oxbow at the BAM Fisher in November 2014 (the night we saw it, an ill Cassella was replaced by Luke Miller), with sound by Justin Jones, lighting by Chloe Z. Brown, and costumes by Mindy Nelson. But don’t expect overly sentimental movement filled with sadness; Baldwin favors mystery and absurdity, and, in a rare turn for her detailed perfectionism, has given the dancers the opportunity for structured improvisation. Thus, each show will be different, just as each day is different as people deal with personal loss in their own way.

ANIMAL

Rebecca Hall is mesmerizing as a woman battling a sudden mental illness in Animal (photo by Ahron R. Foster)

Atlantic Stage 2
330 West 16th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through July 2, $60
atlantictheater.org

Rebecca Hall gives a blistering performance as a woman struggling to deal with debilitating anxiety in Olivier Award-winning director and playwright Clare Lizzimore’s Animal, which opened last night at Atlantic’s Stage 2 theater. The intimate, emotionally involving play takes place on Obie-winning designer Rachel Hauck’s spare set, a small, horizontal space where the characters occasionally bring in a few chairs or a table, the audience of ninety-eight sitting in a handful of rows on opposite sides of the room. Hall is Rachel, a young woman who is suffering from mental illness brought on by an unnamed incident. About to visit a doctor, she asks her worried husband, Tom (Morgan Spector), “What if my thoughts change?” wondering if he will leave her. “Then good,” he responds supportively. “That’s what thoughts are supposed to do.” Rachel is seeing a psychiatrist, Stephen (Greg Heller), in the belief that she just needs the doctor to sign off on a piece of paper that will allow her to go back to work and resume a normal, healthy life. “The ultimate aim is for you to be able to stand in the middle of a storm, be buffeted on every side by the world, but remain centered,” Stephen says, explaining that there is no simple form for him to fill out and that it will take more sessions and complete honesty for her to get better. Back home, Rachel has trouble helping Tom take care of his ailing mother (Kristin Griffith), who is confined to a wheelchair. Meanwhile, a mild-mannered stranger named Dan (David Pegram) breaks into the house, titillating Rachel even as she demands him to leave. Rachel wants to pretend that she’s fine, that she’s ready to rejoin life, but deep down she knows that there is something that she is refusing to face. “I’m crying at counters, weeping into the arms of the checkout girls, not ’cause I’m sad, or depressed or — ’cause I hate myself,” she tells Stephen, whom at one point she envisions as a little girl (Fina Strazz). Rachel’s inability to separate fantasy from reality leads to a shocking, unforgettable conclusion.

Tom (Morgan Spector) and Rachel (Rebecca Hall) try to save their marriage in New York premiere of Clare Lizzimore’s Animal (photo by Ahron R. Foster)

Animal is a beautifully perceptive play, as Lizzimore (The Mint, The Rage) and director Gaye Taylor Upchurch (The Last Match, The Year of Magical Thinking) wade through the morass of one woman’s severe mental illness. However, there are more than a few bumpy patches, particularly when Rachel and Tom, at opposite sides of the stage, pick up microphones and speak as if they’re suddenly absurdist confessional comics, and there are a few instances where the dialogue lapses into more of a graduate school thesis than dramatic narrative. Heller (The Who and the What, Belleville) is excellent as Stephen, soft and gentle with the extremely fragile Rachel while not being afraid to occasionally challenge her. But the play belongs to Hall (Machinal, As You Like It), who is mesmerizing as Rachel, a woman who doesn’t understand why she has fallen apart. Throughout the eighty-five-minute play, she wears the same loose-fitting gray sweats, hoodie, and ever-present tight hat — as if she’s physically keeping her pain inside her. The revelation at the end is no mere gimmick or M. Night Shyamalan gotcha; rather, it is a surprise that one doesn’t see coming, much like mental illness itself.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY 2017

There’s plenty of smokin’ good ’cue at annual BBQ block party in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 10, and Sunday, June 11, pay per plate, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Fast Pass: $150; Big Rig VIP Pass: $275
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

The immensely popular and ridiculously crowded Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is upon us, as pitmasters from around the country gather in Madison Square Park and serve up some damn fine BBQ. The fifteenth annual event, being held June 10-11, features some old favorites as well as some up-and-comers: Ash Fulk of Hill Country BBQ in California (Brisket with House Pickle), Bill Durney of Hometown Bar-b-que in Brooklyn (Smoked Beef Short Ribs with Pickles & Onions), Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Alabama (Pulled Pork Sandwich with Spicy Mustard Coleslaw), Garry Roark and Leslie Roark Scott of Ubon’s Barbeque in Mississippi (Mississippi Chicken Wings & Sausage with Bloody Mary Cucumber Salad), Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue Smoke in Manhattan (Brisket Burnt Ends with Chipotle Barbecue Sauce & Summer Corn Salad), Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth of Root & Bone in Manhattan (Corn3, Watermelon3), Joe Duncan of Baker’s Ribs in Dallas (St. Louis Ribs with Jalapeño Coleslaw), John Stage of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Manhattan (St. Louis Ribs with Beans), John Wheeler of Memphis Barbecue Co. in Mississippi (Baby Back Ribs with Beans), Jonathan Fox and Justin Fox of Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q in Atlanta (Brisket, Jalapeño-Cheddar Sausage & Potato Salad), Mike Mills and Amy Mills of 17th St. BBQ in Murphysboro (Baby Back Ribs with Tangy Pit Beans), Nick Pihakis of Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham (Smoked Pork Hot Links with Pimento Cheese), Pat Martin of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville (West Tennessee Whole Hog with Coleslaw), Scott Roberts of Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Texas (Brisket with Sausage and Sesame Coleslaw), Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Charleston (St. Louis Ribs with Coleslaw), and Sam Jones of Skylight Inn/Sam Jones BBQ in North Carolina (Eastern North Carolina Whole Hog Sandwich with Sweet Slaw), with desserts ($6) from the Original Fried Pie Shop and Sugaree’s Bakery.

The lines can get extremely long, so the best way to enjoy the event is to go with a bunch of friends, get on different lines, and then gather somewhere in the park to devour your meal. (Last year, each plate of ’cue was ten bucks.) The FastPass is back, where for $150 you get access for you and one guest to the express lanes and $125 worth of food, drink, and merchandise; the Big Rig VIP Package grants you that in addition to access to the VIP tent and private VIP area with open bar and snacks, for $275. Saturday’s music lineup consists of National Reserve at 12 noon, Dead Horses at 1:30, Adam Ezra Group at 3:00, Antibalas at 4:30, and DJ Amira Nader all day, while Sunday’s roster boasts Walker Lukens at 12 noon, Emily Wolfe at 1:30, Cris Jacobs at 3:00, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes at 4:30, and DJ Vinyl Ranch all day.

ARTISTS AND THE ARCHIVE: RAOUL PECK

Raoul Peck will be at the Schomburg Center on June 8 to discuss his career and his latest film, I Am Not Your Negro

Who: Raoul Peck, Kevin Young, Paul Holdengräber
What: Conversation and pop-up exhibition
Where: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd.
When: Thursday, June 8, $10, 7:00
Why: In conjunction with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s acquisition in April of the personal archives of James Baldwin, including published and unpublished letters, manuscripts, drafts, galleys, screenplays, notes, and photographs, the institution will be hosting award-winning Haitian filmmaker and former minister of culture Raoul Peck in a special conversation on June 10. Peck has written and directed such sociopolitical features and documentaries as Lumumba, Moloch Tropical, and Fatal Assistance; his latest is the Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro, about the Harlem-born Baldwin. Peck will be joined by Schomburg Center director Kevin Young and LIVE from the NYPL director Paul Holdengräber; the main focus is Peck’s career, but there should be plenty about Baldwin as well. In addition, the pop-up exhibition “Evidence of Things Seen” will display select items from the Baldwin acquisition.

BROOKLYN FILM FESTIVAL: A CAMBODIAN SPRING

Boeung Kak resident Toul Srey Pov leads the fight to save her community in A Cambodian Spring

A CAMBODIAN SPRING (Chris Kelly, 2017)
Wythe Hotel
80 Wythe Ave. at North Eleventh St.
Wednesday, June 7, 7:30, and Sunday, June 11, 8:30
Festival continues through June 11
www.brooklynfilmfestival.org
acambodianspring.com

It would be easy to assume that Chris Kelly’s documentary A Cambodian Spring, about a Phnom Penh community’s battle to save its village when developers move in, was part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, which begins June 9 at Lincoln Center and IFC Center. However, it is actually being shown June 7 and 11 at the Wythe Hotel in the twentieth annual Brooklyn Film Festival, which began June 2 and continues through June 11. Winner of the Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, A Cambodian Spring follows two women and one man as they lead the fight to protect their homes in Boeung Kak after Prime Minister Hun Sen cancels the World Bank’s Land Management program and makes a deal with Shukaku Inc. to develop the area. The new plan is based on eliminating the large lake around which many people live, struggling to survive day to day. Leading the charge against the land grab are Tep Vanny, a born activist; Toul Srey Pov, a quiet mother who suddenly finds herself thrust into the spotlight, rallying supporters using a megaphone; and the venerable Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk and video activist whose pagoda threatens to defrock him if he doesn’t back off challenging the government. “They said that a monk shouldn’t care about the problems of the people,” he says, referring to the other members of his pagoda, “but I disagree.” The people of Boeung Kak are mired in abject poverty; their livelihood, fishing, has been taken away from them, and now Shukaku workers have shown up with equipment ready to tear down the decrepit shacks the villagers call home. “Soon, all the poor people will be gone. Only the rich will be left,” Pov says. When self-exiled opposition party leader Sam Rainsy returns to Cambodia to run against Hun Sen, the citizenry finds new hope, but then infighting threatens their cause. “If we have unity, compassion, and trust, then we will be strong and no one will break us,” Pov explains. “But if we don’t trust each other, then how can we work together? It will all come to an end. We won’t succeed.”

Socially conscious writer-director Kelly spent nine years preparing, filming, and editing A Cambodian Spring, capturing Sovath’s long walk to the courthouse, the Shukaku workers flooding villagers’ homes while emptying the lake, and press conferences with a nervous Pov. It’s a one-sided affair that doesn’t even pretend to be objective, and at two hours, it is too long, with several repetitive scenes that serve as overkill in order to pull at viewers’ heartstrings and paint a clear line between good and evil, no matter how valid and factual it may be. That said, Kelly, who is currently at work on a documentary about slavery in the Thai fishing industry, has revealed a frightening, tragic situation, and one that is occurring all over the world. Governments make deals with corporations, leaving the poorest, most powerless of their citizens abandoned, with little food and shelter. But the story is just as much about the three protagonists, inspirational figures who decided they could not remain silent as their lives and those of their neighbors were turned upside down. “Our mouths are sealed with tape and stitched together with thread,” Pov says, but they refuse to stop fighting. All three risk their freedom and safety, but Sovath often stands out, a gentle giant in monk’s robes who can’t exactly blend in with the crowds. A documentary that will anger you and make you want to rise up yourself, A Cambodian Spring is screening June 7 at 7:30 and June 11 at 8:30 at the Brooklyn Film Festival, with Kelly participating in Q&As after both shows. The festival continues through June 11 with more than 130 narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental features and shorts and a twentieth-anniversary party at the Williamsburg Music Center.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: THE TRAVELING LADY

the traveling lady

HORTON FOOTE’S THE TRAVELING LADY
Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Tuesday – Sunday, June 7 – July 30, $65-$95 ($39-$49 with code TTLRED)
212-989-2020
www.cherrylanetheatre.org

Cherry Lane Theatre’s Founder’s Project and La Femme Theatre Productions are teaming up to honor celebrated playwright Horton Foote’s centennial (he actually would have turned 101 this past March; he passed away in 2009 at the age of 92) with a revival of his short-lived 1954 Broadway drama, The Traveling Lady. The show, about a wife reuniting with her husband upon his release from prison, originally featured Helen Carew and Lonny Chapman in the lead roles but such supporting actors as Jack Lord and Kim Stanley. Directed by multifaceted stage and screen legend and Obie winner Austin Pendleton, the Cherry Lane production stars Tony winner Karen Ziemba along with Larry Bull, Lynn Cohen, Angelina Fiordellisi, Jean Lichty, George Morfogen, Ron Piretti, PJ Sosko, and Jill Tanner. (Fiordellisi is the founding artistic director of Cherry Lane; Lichty and Pendleton, with Robert Dohmen, founded La Femme, which presents plays that have significant roles for women.) The set and lighting are by Harry Feiner, with costumes by Theresa Squire and sound and original music by Ryan Rumery. Foote won screenwriting Oscars for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies and a Pulitzer for The Young Man from Atlanta but never took home a Tony despite such successes as Atlanta, Dividing the Estate, and The Trip to Bountiful.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: The Traveling Lady runs June 7 through July 30 at the Cherry Lane, and twi-ny has three pairs of tickets to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and favorite Horton Foote play or movie to contest@twi-ny.com by Wednesday, June 7, at 5:00 pm to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; three winners will be selected at random.