twi-ny recommended events

AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION

monologue competition helps keep August Wilsons legacy alive

Annual monologue competition helps keep August Wilson’s tremendous legacy alive

Who: High school students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Seattle
What: Seventh annual August Wilson Monologue Competition
Where: August Wilson Theatre, 245 West 52nd St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:00
Why: The finals for the 2015 August Wilson Monologue Competition will take the stage May 4 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway, honoring the late, legendary playwright by performing two-to-three-minute excerpts from his works, the ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle that includes such modern classics as The Piano Lesson, Fences, Two Trains Running, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and Gem of the Ocean. The finalists, two from each city, will work with longtime Wilson collaborators Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler on their monologue and also get the opportunity to take in Something Rotten! The judges for the annual event, which began in 2007, are Crystal Dickinson, Brandon J. Dirden, David Gallo, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Pauletta Washington. The winner receives $1,500, with $1,000 for the runner-up and $500 for honorable mention. The evening will also include a live performance by musician Guy Davis.

AIRLINE HIGHWAY

Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 14, $50-$130
airlinehighwaybroadway.com
www.manhattantheatreclub.com

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D’Amour (Detroit) channels her inner Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill in Airline Highway, a rapturous tale about a group of lovable luckless losers coexisting in the run-down, dilapidated Hummingbird Motel on a slowly gentrifying Airline Highway in modern-day, post-Katrina New Orleans. It’s the spring of 2014, and the sad-sack denizens of the seedy motel are preparing for a funeral party in honor of their matriarch, Miss Ruby (Judith Roberts), a local burlesque legend who is on her deathbed but wants a big send-off while she’s still alive. Tanya (Julie White), an aging hooker with a heart of gold, is organizing the festivities, getting help from the loud, fun-loving transgender Sissy Na Na (K. Todd Freeman), moody stripper Krista (Caroline Neff), hippie leftover Francis (Ken Marks), jack of all trades, master of none Terry (Tim Edward Rhoze), and longtime motel manager and primary ne’er-do-well Wayne (Scott Jaeck). They all share a familial sense of camaraderie, ribbing one another about their sorry-ass lives, but only to show they really do care. “Why do we gotta wait until we’re in the coffin for people to say nice things about us?” Francis asks. “Yeah, like maybe if those people said those things earlier, we’d live longer,” Wayne adds, to which Krista responds, “Who wants to live longer.” Trouble soon shows up in the form of Bait Boy (Joe Tippett), an old Hummingbird resident who got out three years earlier and is trying to make a new life for himself, moving in with a cougar and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Zoe (Carolyn Braver), in Atlanta. Bait Boy — whose nickname has numerous debated derivations — had been in a long-term relationship with Krista, who is none too happy to see him again, especially since he has brought his stepdaughter; Zoe keeps asking everyone personal questions as part of a sociology paper she is doing for school. “I’m supposed to interview at least three people from the same subculture,” she explains. “Meaning, you live in a ‘culture,’ and you are coming down to us,” Sissy Na Na points out. Bait Boy’s return and Zoe’s presence set things in motion as the past comes back to haunt them all.

Two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello (Assassins, Take Me Out) directs this Steppenwolf production, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, with an infectious giddiness that is echoed in David Zinn’s spot-on costumes and Scott Pask’s fab set, which turns the drab parking lot of the dilapidated, depressing Hummingbird into a space bursting with life despite the universal lack of hope displayed by the characters, all damaged goods who seem resigned to their fate. But that’s not going to stop them from dressing up and throwing one helluva party. The ensemble is superb, led by Tony winner White (The Little Dog Laughed,), who has been nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for her lovely, understated performance as Tanya, a street-smart woman who expected more out of life but is making due with the lot she’s been cast. Tony nominee Freeman (The Song of Jacob Zulu) is up for a Tony and Drama Desk Award for his poignant portrayal of Sissy, a caring soul who speaks her mind and loves to have a good time. In her Broadway debut, Neff (A Brief History of Helen of Troy) gives a beautiful, heartbreaking edge to Krista, who is ashamed of what’s become of her, while Rhoze is a riot as Terry, a layabout who should have done more with his life. The play is alive with the energy of New Orleans, as well as its music, highlighted by Fitz Patton’s original score, a fiery take on Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband,” and overlapping dialogue bursting with an intoxicating rhythm. Two late soliloquies are entirely unnecessary, overemphasizing what the story has already shown us about these very believable forgotten men and women living by their wits on the fringes of society. The play takes place during Jazz Fest, but only Francis has ever been to the annual New Orleans celebration, and he doesn’t even go to the main part. “The real fest is on the edges,” he says, just like their existence. There are various Native American legends about the hummingbird, a positive symbol that can represent peace, love, and happiness as well as beauty, harmony, and integrity. Airline Highway has all that and more.

WHITNEY BLOCK PARTY

The Meatpacking District welcomes the Whitney to the neighborhood at all-day block party on May 2 (photo © Nic Lehoux)

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort St.
Saturday, May 2, free, 11:00 – 8:00
212-570-3600
whitney.org

The Whitney is celebrating the opening of its new home on Gansevoort St. with a block party on May 2, featuring live performances, interactive installations, workshops, and free admission to the museum, where you can check out the inaugural exhibitions “America Is Hard to See” and, on the roof, “Mary Heilman: Sunset.” At the block party, you can take the mic in Trisha Baga’s “Whitney Idol Karaoke,” catch K8 Hardy and Ryan McNamara’s pop-up, site-specific The Poseurs, a Dance, trade your own smile recipes for canned smiles in Nari Ward’s “Sugar Hill Smiles,” get your groove on at My Barbarian’s “Classical Music Dance Party,” make forts, monsters, and other cool things at Friends of the High Line’s “High Line Builders,” learn about the history of the Meatpacking District from local purveyors Jobbagy Meats, help Lize Mogel construct a scale model of New York in “Crowd-Sourced City,” and hang out at Ei Arakawa and Shimon Minamikawa’s “Cyber Café.” Live performances include Gobby in Bed-Stuy Love Affair’s “Gate,” spoken-word DJ Mark Beasley, the Ethyl Eichelberger cover band the Eichelburglers, Jacolby Satterwhite’s “Ein Plein Air: Diamond Princess” with Camp & Street, Tracie Morris with Mr. Jerome Harris and Jemman, and a Tribe Called Red.

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY

Multiple locations in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan
Saturday, May 2 free
bookstoredaynyc.com

More than two dozen independent bookstores in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are participating in Independent Bookstore Day on May 2, with signings, readings, lectures, film screenings, art exhibits, children’s activities, giveaways, games, food tastings, discussions, and, in several cases, free beer, to steer you clear of Amazon and B&N. Guitarist Gary Lucas will be performing live at bookbook on Bleecker St. Paul Durham, Matt Myklusch, Michael Northrop, Dianne K. Salerni, and Josh Lieb join together for a Fantastic Middle Grade panel at Books of Wonder. Amy Hest, Chris Raschka, Deborah Heligman, and Cynthia Weill are among a dozen authors and illustrators who will be at Bank Street Book Store. Housing Works will host a Kidlit Game Show emceed by C. Alexander London. Colm Tóibín, Eileen Myles, Joseph O’Neill, DJ Spooky, Said Sayrafiezadeh, and others are among the literati taking part in a marathon Langston Hughes reading at McNally Jackson. Jon Scieszka will lead a Mad Scientist Party at the Community Bookstore, followed by an evening celebration with Paul Auster, William Corbett, and Felix Harr. The powerHouse Arena will launch Luke’s Lobster’s Real Maine Food, with sample treats. And Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman will be team captains in a game of Pictionary at the Astoria Bookshop during this first-ever national Independent Bookstore Day.

WFMU RECORD FAIR

Annual WFMU Record Fair moves into Brooklyn Expo Center this weekend

Who: Bambi Kino, Olivia Neutron John, Conspiracy of Beards, Tin Sandwich, Daniel Kahn, Danny Kroha, Todd-O-Phonic Todd, the Baseball Project, Michael Shelley, Fool’s Paradise with Rex, Miriam, Billy Jam, and more than 150 record and CD dealers
What: WFMU Record Fair
Where: Brooklyn Expo Center, 79 Franklin St. between Noble & Oak Sts.
When: May 1-3, $7, 4:00 – 7:00 Friday, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm Saturday & Sunday (early admission Friday at 4:00, $25)
Why: Because there’s still nothing like spinning that black circle. In addition to tons of vintage vinyl and CDs for sale from all musical genres, the annual WFMU Record Fair will feature screenings of such cult classics as Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13, Dan Lucal’s Dance of the Clones, Tim Smith’s Sex and Broadcasting (followed by a Q&A with Smith), Christopher Kirkley’s I Sing the Desert Electric, Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson’s Radio Unnameable, Selma Vilhunnen’s Song, Cate Giordano’s Heritage, Olivia Wyatt’s The Pierced Heart & the Machete, and Philippe Garrel’s The Inner Scar.

GRATEFUL DEAD MEET-UP AT THE MOVIES 2015

Who: The Grateful Dead
What: Fifth annual “Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies”
Where: AMC Empire 25, AMC Loews Kips Bay 15, Regal Union Square Stadium 14
When: Monday, May 4, $12.50, 7:00
Why: Fathom Events’ “Classic Music Series” continues with a screening of the the Grateful Dead’s never-before-shown July 19, 1989, concert at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. For the finale of a three-night stand, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, and Bob Weir played a two hour and fifty-minute set that included such gems as “Sugaree,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Deal,” “Box of Rain,” “The Wheel,” and our personal favorite, “Terrapin Station.” In past years, the cinema series screened 4/21/72 in Bremen, 8/27/72 in Oregon, and 7/18/89 at Alpine Valley.

3D IN THE 21st CENTURY: CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS

Werner Herzog goes spelunking in 3D for 2010 documentary, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog, 2010)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Sunday, May 3, 4:00 & 8:30
Series runs May 1-17
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.wernerherzog.com

An adventurer as much as a filmmaker, German director Werner Herzog has headed into the Amazon in Fitzcarraldo (1982), burning Kuwaiti oil fields in Lessons of Darkness (1992), and Antarctica in Encounters at the End of the World (2008). In his 2010 documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, he goes where few have ever gone before. In December 1994, speleologists Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel, and Christian Hillaire discovered the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in France, a vast series of chambers filled with remarkable paintings and engravings as well as animal bones, including the skulls of the extinct cave bear. The works were painted onto and carved into the walls, not limited to flat surfaces but around formations that jut out into the cavern. Dating back more than thirty thousand years, they are the oldest cave paintings ever found, well preserved through crystallization over the centuries and now by the intense and careful protection of the French government. Only a handful of scientists have been given access to the cave, until last spring, when Herzog, who has been entranced by cave paintings since he was twelve years old, was allowed to bring in a shoestring crew using specially devised equipment to film the space over the course of six four-hour sessions. The four-person crew — including Herzog manning the lights and his longtime cinematographer, Peter Zeitlinger, behind the 3D camera — were not allowed to touch anything and had to stay on a narrow metal walkway that winds through the cave. They were accompanied by a team of specialists on the rare public journey: handprint expert Dominique Baffier, cave bear researcher Michel Philippe, the husband and wife team of Gilles Tosello and Carole Fritz, who map out the social connection between art and archaeology, Jean Clottes, the former director of the Chauvet Cave Research Project, and current director Jean-Michel Geneste.

In true Herzog style, he also speaks with a master perfumer and two prehistoric flute archaeologists. Herzog’s decision to use 3D — for what he says will be the only time in his career — was a stroke of genius, allowing viewers to feel like they’re walking through the cave with him, nearly able to reach out and touch the remarkable drawings, engravings, and skeletons. Herzog’s narration does get too dreamy at times, veering off on philosophical tangents before he adds a cool but silly coda, but, as always, he adds plenty of his trademark humor and charm too. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is screening May 3 at 4:00 & 8:30 with Ikuo Nakamura’s 2014 eleven-minute short, Aurora Borealis, as part of the BAMcinématek series “3D in the 21st Century,” consisting of nineteen programs of single films and double features, all shot in 3D. The festival also includes Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity with Trisha Baga’s Other Gravity, Jon M. Chu’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never with Nadia Ranocchi and David Zamagni’s Joule, Jeff Tremaine’s Jackass 3D with Ben Coonley’s 3D Trick Pony, Alexandre Aja’s Piranha 3D with Yoshi Sodeoka’s Psychedelic Death Vomit (Slight Return), and Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language with Kerry Laitala’s Chromatic Frenzy.