twi-ny recommended events

WAVE RISING SERIES

John Ryan Theatre
25 Jay St.
Wednesday – Sunday, October 23 – November 10
Wednesday night preview tickets $25-$30, Thursday – Sunday $20-$25
www.whitewavedance.com

The eighth annual Wave Rising Series begins October 23 at the John Ryan Theatre in DUMBO, kicking off three weeks of performances from established and emerging dance companies. Program A for week one consists of Carson Efird Westerlund’s Wedding/Funeral and I am come for you, Dance Theater Chang’s Headache, and Antonio Brown’s The Line, while Program B includes Anne Bluethenthal’s Forgiveness Project: Part One, Becca Alaly + Dancers’ You’re a Citizen of Me, Sandra Kramerova and Artists’ QUATRO, and Khaleah London / LAYERS’ The Ultimatum. Week two’s Program C features Amy Marshall Dance Company’s DJIVA and an excerpt from Two Duets and a Quartet, Azul Dance Theatre / Yuki Hasegawa’s Elements (see video above), 277DanceProject’s Flight, and excerpts from series host WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company’s Eternal NOW, with Program D comprising Boomerang’s Gut Check, Billy Bell / Lunge Dance Collective’s Unit of Riot, Maria Gillespie / Oni Dance’s Vanished Earth and Forge Forage, and Jacobs Campbell Dance’s Incubator. Week three’s Program E brings David Norsworthy’s before the and Springtime for Tolerance, Jasmyn Fyffe’s Pulse, and Sally Silvers & Li Chiao-Ping Dance’s L’Altra Notte and Riot of Spring, with Program F composed of the Ume Group’s Facet, Karen Harvey’s Connect, and Yoshito Sakuraba / Abarukas Contemporary Dance Company’s Lullaby to Mr. Adam.

ALL FOR ONE THEATER FESTIVAL: ANOTHER MEDEA

Tom Hewitt gives an unforgettable performance in Aaron Mark’s mesmerizing ANOTHER MEDEA (photo by Aaron Mark)

Tom Hewitt gives an unforgettable performance in Aaron Mark’s darkly mesmerizing ANOTHER MEDEA (photo by Aaron Mark)

Cherry Lane Studio Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Saturday, October 26, 4:00, and Wednesday, October 30, 7:00, $26 ($5 off with code LEGENDARY)
Festival runs through November 9
www.afofest.org
www.aaronmark.webs.com

Aaron Mark’s Another Medea is as intense and gripping a show as you’re ever likely to see, a harrowing examination of Euripides’ Medea myth, set in modern-day New York City. The eighty-minute one-man show is spectacularly acted by Tom Hewitt, in a 180-degree turn from his Broadway resume, which includes such villainous musical characters as Dr. Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Scar in The Lion King, and Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar. Hewitt plays an actor determined to meet fellow thespian Marcus Sharp, who is in prison for committing a horrific crime. For most of the show, Hewitt is seated behind a small table, retelling the story that Sharp told his onetime understudy when they finally met. Sharp shares his tale in precise, exacting detail, using multiple voices as he talks about his relationship with a wealthy British doctor named Jason, one that ends in heartbreaking tragedy. Writer-director Mark (Commentary, Failed Suicide Attempts, Random Unrelated Projects) wrote the show specifically for Hewitt, who is performing it at the third annual All for One Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre (and for the first time without the script in front of him). Hewitt is nothing short of breathtaking, immersing himself in the role of an extremely complex and conflicted character whose crime is unfortunately all too familiar in these difficult times. His mastery of the material is stunning, poetically delivered without calling attention to itself. Brutal and beautiful at the same time, Another Medea is a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience that deserves to have a longer life in a bigger venue.

(Mark and Hewitt, who originally produced Another Medea earlier this year at the Duplex in the West Village and then New York Theatre Workshop at Dartmouth, will be participating in the All for One panel discussion “Something Wicked: Writing and Performing Dangerous Characters” on October 26 at 11:00 am.)

THE MET — LIVE IN HD: THE NOSE

William Kentridge’s unconventional version of Shostakovich’s THE NOSE will be broadcast live in movie theaters on October 26

THE MET: LIVE IN HD PRESENTS SHOSTAKOVICH’S THE NOSE
Multiple theaters in the metropolitan area
Saturday, October 26, 12:55 pm (live), and Wednesday, October 30, 6:30 (encore), $18-$24
www.metoperafamily.org
www.fathomevents.com

Back in March 2010, we called the Met debut of William Kentridge’s visually stunning version of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose “an unconventional opera, with unconventional sets, an unconventional score, and an unconventional length, clocking in at a mere 104 minutes.” The absurdist opera, based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, deals with a minor Russian bureaucrat who wakes up one morning to find that his proboscis is missing, and, not surprisingly, he wants it back. Kentridge’s inventive staging, involving black-and-white animation, lofty sets that suddenly appear well off the ground or are dragged around by characters, and a Russian constructivist collage that serves as a backdrop for much of the action, is back at the Met for performances on October 22 at 7:30 and October 26 at 1:00. Paulo Szot reprises his role as Kovalyov, with Andrey Popov again playing the police inspector and Alexander Lewis as the Nose; the production is conducted by Pavel Smelkov. Saturday’s performance is part of “The Met: Live in HD” series, which broadcasts the show to movie theaters around the country, including the Regal Union Square, AMC Loews Village 7, AMC Empire 25, and the Ziegfeld. There will also be an encore presentation October 30 at 6:30. Kentridge fans should also be sure to check out his superb multimedia “Second-hand Reading” exhibit, which continues through Saturday at Marian Goodman Gallery on West 57th St., as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit “The Refusal of Time,” which runs October 22 to May 11.

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette (Marin Ireland) discusses the state of her sheltered world in Soho Rep. production (photo by Pavel Antonov)

Soho Rep.
46 Walker St. between Broadway & Church St.
Tuesday – Sunday through November 3, $35-$50; November 5–17, $55-$75; November 19—24, $55-$80; Sunday, October 27, $0.99, first come, first served
212-352-3101
www.sohorep.org

Following more lavish productions at American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre, David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette gets the stripped-down, minimalist treatment at Soho Rep., where it’s just been extended through November 24. The staging is stark; the seventy-three-seat general admission audience sits in two long, horizontal rows of chairs, facing a white wall that announces the name of the play, and its main character. The story begins in 1776, as Marie (the always wonderful Marin Ireland) is gossiping over tea and macarons with her friends Yolande de Polignac (Marsha Stephanie Blake) and Therese de Lamballe (Jennifer Ikeda), discussing Rousseau, revolution, and the height of their hair. “I do like to disport myself,” the Valley Girl-like Antoinette says. “I’m sorry, even buffeted by the outcries of peasants — I’m a queen. I cannot simply forfeit my luxuries.” Among her luxuries is a dazzling red dress designed by Anka Lupes and a fab blonde wig courtesy of Amanda Miller. (The previous productions featured bigger hair and numerous costume changes, but Ireland now remains in the same dress until it’s nearly ripped off of her in act two.) She wants to have children, but her husband, the diminutive and hapless King Louis XVI (Steven Ratazzi), is scared of getting an operation on his member that would help them conceive.

Hapless King Louis XVI (Steven Ratazzi) is at a loss as revolution threatens (photo by Pavel Antonov)

Eventually, the regal Antoinette is singing a very different tune after being imprisoned by revolutionaries. “I wasn’t raised, I was built: I was built to be this thing; and now they’re killing me for it,” she says. Ireland (The Big Knife, Reasons to Be Pretty) has a ball as Antoinette, and her enthusiasm is infectious. She exhibits the queen’s fall from grace with just the right amount of pathos, especially as the peasants start their vicious personal attacks on her, centered around a pseudo-autobiography that declares her a sex-addicted whore. Director Rebecca Taichman’s spare staging turns both wacky and sublime when Antoinette, who thought of herself as a shepherdess, is visited by a talking sheep (manipulated by David Greenspan). The cast also includes Chris Stack as Marie’s would-be lover, Axel Fersen; Aimée Laurence as the dauphin; and Will Pullen as an unsympathetic revolutionary. With its swift and elegant tongue placed firmly in its stylishly made-up cheek, this Marie Antoinette is an engaging, seriocomic look at a legendary historical figure who has become an unlikely pop-culture icon.

(There will be several special events associated with the play. The October 27 show will be followed by the discussion “What Is a History Play?,” the talk “How to Grow a New Play with David Adjmi” is scheduled for October 28 at 6:00, and the 7:30 performance on November 2 will be followed by the program “The Queen’s Room: French Interior Design and the State of the Nation.” In addition, Barbara Schulz will star in the one-woman show Les correspondances de Marie-Antoinette on October 24 at FIAF, and Perrin Stein will lead tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Artists and Amateurs: Etching in 18th-Century France” display on October 25 and November 1.)

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

VICTORIA COHEN: HOTEL CHELSEA

Third Streaming
10 Greene St., second floor
Monday – Friday through October 25, free
646-370-3877
www.thirdstreaming.com
www.victoriacohen.com

In the summer of 2011, when New York native Victoria Cohen heard that the Hotel Chelsea was being sold and would be undergoing extensive renovations, she “felt many emotions,” she writes in her debut photo book, the beautiful, deluxe, oversize Hotel Chelsea (Pointed Leaf Press, August 2013, $95). “First and foremost, as an artist, I was angry and sad that an institution such as the Chelsea would have this fate. . . . It just didn’t seem possible — at least to me — that a place with such an extraordinary history, and where so many of the greatest literary minds, visual artists, musicians, and eccentrics of the twentieth century have called home for over a hundred years, could be torn apart.” So Cohen set out to capture the heart and soul of the hotel that had helped give birth to seminal works by Jack Kerouac, Arthur C. Clarke, Leonard Cohen, William S. Burroughs, Larry Rivers, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and so many others. For three weeks, Cohen shot what she calls “portraits” of the hotel’s guest rooms, rooftop, and hallways, although no humans are ever seen.

Victoria Cohen, “Room 1024, Chair,” C-print, 2011 (© 2011 by Victoria Cohen)

Instead, it is as if ghosts and spirits inhabit Cohen’s pictures, taken with a handheld camera using only natural light. More than two dozen are on view at Third Streaming in SoHo through October 25, wonderfully arranged by curator Michael Steinberg and Cohen. A mop and bucket, seemingly timeless, stand by themselves in a corner. An old piano looks like it might not have been played in years. Brick walls in disrepair on the roof hint at some bad times gone by. But the real mysteries of the Hotel Chelsea, which was recently sold to luxury hotel developer King & Grove, can be found in Cohen’s marvelously composed shots of the guest rooms, each one unique and different, from the dark couch in “Room 632” to the two bright-red chairs in “Eighth Floor South,” from the card table in “Fifth Floor South” to the mini-fridge and coffee paraphernalia against green wallpaper in “Room 203.” One series of photos zeroes in on made beds, while another focuses on rooms with two windows, adding a compelling geometric element to the works. One of the most striking images is “Room 1024,” the camera placed just in front of the entrance to a sparkling living room with chairs that seem to be inviting the viewer to take a seat. In each of these photos, Cohen also invites the viewer to create their own narrative about the past, present, and future, and it’s almost impossible not to.

GRUB STREET FOOD FESTIVAL

HESTER STREET FAIR
Hester & Essex Sts.
Sunday, October 20, free, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.hesterstreetfair.com
www.grubstreet.com

The fourth annual Grub Street Food Festival takes places today as part of the Hester Street Fair on the Lower East Side, where pushcarts gained popularity more than a hundred years ago. Approximately seventy eateries will be offering tasty bites; there will also be live music, a beer garden, and a Tailgate Zone that will be showing Sunday’s football games. Among the participating restaurants and food businesses are Doughnut Plant, Mimi and Coco NY, Macaron Parlour, Asiadog, Fat Radish, MELT Bakery, the Pickle Guys, Cuzins Duzin, Heartbeet Juicery, Brooklyn Taco Co., Luke’s Lobster, Roberta’s, Bocce’s Bakery, Oaxaca, Pop Karma, BabyCakes, Sticky’s Finger Joint, Arancini Bros., Bibingka-esk, Cheeky Sandwiches, and many more. The food festival is sponsored by Grub Street, New York magazine’s food blog.