twi-ny recommended events

SHADOW DANCER

SHADOW DANCER

MI5 officer Mac (Clive Owen) offers a tough deal to IRA operative Collette (Andrea Riseborough) in SHADOW DANCER

SHADOW DANCER (James Marsh, 2012)
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Opens Friday, May 31
212-330-8182
www.magpictures.com
www.landmarktheatres.com

Set during the waning days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer is a taut, tense, if sometimes plodding thriller about loyalty and family. In 1973, young Collette McVeigh (Maria Laird) sends her baby brother, Sean (Ben Smyth), to do an errand she was asked to take care of, and she is filled with guilt when the boy is caught in the crossfire of an IRA shootout and killed. Twenty years later, Collette (Andrea Riseborough) is an IRA operative in the midst of placing a bomb in a train station. But after abandoning the plan, she is taken into custody, with MI5 agent Mac (Clive Owen) offering her a nearly impossible choice: spy on her IRA compatriots, including her two brothers, Gerry (Aidan Gillen) and Connor (Domhnall Gleeson), and get a new life with her son, Mark (Cathal Maguire), or face twenty-five years in prison. As IRA leader Kevin Mulville (David Wilmot) keeps a close watch on Collette, suspicious of her every action, her mother (Bríd Brennan) tries to keep the family together. Adapted by Tom Bradby from his novel, Shadow Dancer is highlighted by a strong central performance by Riseborough (W.E., Oblivion), who plays the trapped Collette with a mysterious intensity as she rarely does the obvious thing. Owen never really lets go as Mac, keeping the character too single-minded and direct, while a blond Gillian Anderson doesn’t have all that much to do as his boss, Kate Fletcher. But the film overcomes these minor flaws, as Marsh combines his history as both a fiction filmmaker (Red Riding Trilogy, The King) and a documentarian (Man on Wire, Project Nim) to tell a gripping tale that may be set in the dangerous world of 1990s Northern Ireland but is really, at its heart, about the seemingly unbreakable bond between mother and child.

BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS 2013

Bushwick Open Studios will feature live performance, film, art, a neighborhood fair, a community mural, and more this weekend

Bushwick Open Studios will feature live performance, film, art, a neighborhood fair, a community mural, and more this weekend

Various locations indoors and outdoors in Bushwick
May 31 – June 2, most events free
www.artsinbushwick.org

The seventh annual Bushwick Open Studios takes place this weekend, consisting of three days of art, live performance, film, and other artistic endeavors. The official launch party gets going at 8:00 Friday night ($10) at Shea Stadium with Eula, Air Waves, Lodro, Darlings, and DJ Mr. Ad Hoc; there will also be concerts Friday afternoon at Don Pedro and Saturday afternoon at Lone Wolf. The neighborhood will come together for the public mural “How Does Food Unite People,” Hybrid Theatre Works will present an evening of performance art, Bossa Nova Civic Club will host a late-night Electronic Music Showcase, Brooklyn Fireproof East will be home to the Moving Forward concert, 3rd Ward will exhibit the group show “Walking into the Dashboard” (compiled from the World’s First Tumblr Art Symposium), CinemaSunday will include screenings followed by Q&As with the filmmakers, and Community Day in Maria Hernandez Park features arts & crafts, live music, family-friendly activities, yoga, and more.

SONG OF THE DAY: “CURTAIN CALL” BY STEEL PHANTOMS

How can you not love a band that records a punk blowout called “Matt LeBlanc” in which they proclaim, “My love was only meant for you”? Brooklyn indie duo Steel Phantoms, consisting of former Islands drummer Aaron Harris and guitarist Jesse Newkirk, kick out the jams on that song and a half dozen others on their upcoming, eponymously titled EP, which is due July 16. The follow-up to the band’s 2010 self-titled EP and the 2011 EP Forer, the new record features a big sound with haunting background vocals and multiple melodic shifts on such tracks as “Sunflares,” “We Can’t Fail,” and the opener, “Curtain Call,” which is highlighted by rollicking drums (and takes an additional bow at the end of the closing number, “Skin Tone”). Steel Phantoms will be at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg on May 31 with Snowden and We Barbarians.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2013

howl 2013

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
May 31 – June 2, free
www.howlfestival.com

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” begins Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which serves as the centerpiece for the somewhat annual Howl! Festival in and around Tompkins Square Park this weekend. The madness kicks off Friday at 4:30 with the Great Howl!, with Tyler Burba performing songs by Ginsberg, Bob Holman orchestrating a lineup of poets, and a group reading of Ginsberg’s masterpiece; among the participants are Hettie Jones, David Henderson, Jennifer Blowdryer, Lydia Lunch, Bob Rosenthal, Eliot Katz, Edwin Torres, and Nancy Mercado. On Saturday afternoon, there will be live performances on the Great Howl! Stage by Miami Rice, Anna Copacabana, Tall Pines, Ward White, Faith . . . , Richard Lloyd, and Vangeline Theater’s Mosaic. Meanwhile, the Beatification Stage will be holding a marathon poetry reading celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, hosted by Todd Colby and including Jenny Zhang, Maggie Estep, Jennifer L. Knox, Mike Doughty, Carl Hancock Rux, CA Conrad, Bo DePena, Jason Nazary, and others. There will also be a children’s carnival, live painting on canvases surrounding the park, Riki Colon’s Men in Skirts presenting And I Still Rise, and the Allen Ginsberg Magnetic Field, consisting of installations, demonstrations, interactive projects, community nonprofit organizations, and more. On Sunday, Great Howl! Stage performers include Karen Marie, Bear 54, Diane Gentile, Andy Shernoff, Jack Skuller, and the Liza Colby Sound; dance will take over the Beatification Stage (along with Marguerite Van Cook’s Rockland series); and the Great Ladies of the Lower East Side will be honored in Low Life 7: Bowery Bombshells, paying tribute to Emma Goldman, Cookie Mueller, Mae West, Slugger Ann, Ellen Stewart, Patti Smith, and others.

FREE SUMMER THEATER 2013

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS is first of two free Shakespeare in the Park presentations at the Delacorte this summer

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS is first of two free Shakespeare in the Park presentations at the Delacorte this summer

Tuesday, May 28
through
Sunday, June 30
Shakespeare in the Park: The Comedy of Errors, starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jonathan Hadary, Hamish Linklater, Heidi Schreck, Skipp Sudduth, Jessica Wu, and others, directed by Daniel Sullivan, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, Tuesday – Sunday at 8:30

Thursday, May 30
through
Sunday, June 23
New York Classical Theatre: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, translated by Jean-Claude van Itallie, directed by Stephen Burdman, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, Thursday – Sunday at 7:00

Monday, June 17
River to River Festival: Bad News!, staged reading directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, Poets House, 10 River Terrace, 6:30

Saturday, June 22
River to River Festival: Andrew Schneider, Tidal, curated by Laurie Anderson, East River Esplanade, Pier 15, 9:00

Tuesday, June 25
through
Sunday, June 30
New York Classical Theatre: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, translated by Jean-Claude van Itallie, directed by Stephen Burdman, Prospect Park, Rustic Shelter by the Lake, 7:00

Thursday, June 27
through
Sunday, June 30
River to River Festival: Sekou Sundiata / Rhodessa Jones, blessing the boats: the remix, with Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Mike Ladd, part of “Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited,” 3:00 or 8:00

Friday, June 28
through
Sunday, July 14
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: Julius Caesar, Smith Street Stage, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, 7:00

Sunday, June 30
River to River Festival: Isolde, LMCC Open Studios with New York City Players, written and directed by Richard Maxwell, starring Jim Fletcher, Brian Mendes, Victoria Vazquez, and Gary Wilmes, 1 Liberty Plaza, advance RSVP required, 3:00

Sunday, June 30
Tuesday, July 2
and
Wednesday, July 3
River to River Festival: You, My Mother: A Chamber Opera in Two Parts, by Two-Headed Calf & Yarn/Wire, directed by Brooke O’Harra, music by Brendan Connelly and Rick Burkhardt, text by Karinne Keithley-Syers and Kristen Kosmas, performed by Gelsey Bell, Beth Griffith, Laryssa Husiak, and Mike Mikos, Pier 17, South Street Seaport, advance RSVP required, 3:00 and/or 8:30

ONE from Piper Theatre Productions on Vimeo.

Friday, July 5, 12, 19
Saturday, July 6, 13, 20
and
Thursday, July 11, 18
Piper Theatre: Frankenstein, directed by John P. McEneny, with films by Jeremy Mather and original score by Lucas Syed, Old Stone House in Washington Park, 8:30

Saturday, July 6, 13, 20
and
Friday, July 12, 19
Piper Theatre: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, directed by Mollie Lief Abramson, Old Stone House in Washington Park, 7:00

Tuesday, July 9
through
Sunday, August 4
New York Classical Theatre: The Tempest by William Shakespeare, directed by Sean Hagerty, Battery Park, Tuesday – Sunday, 7:00

Wednesday, July 10
through
Saturday, July 13
River to River Festival: This Great Country by 600 Highwaymen, directed by Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone, advance RSVP required, Pier 17 Storefront, South Street Seaport, 8:00

Thursday, July 11
through
Saturday, July 27
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Cymbeline, municipal parking lot, corner of Ludlow & Broome Sts.

Saturday, July 13
River to River Festival: Open Studios with Andrew Ondrejcak based on Strindberg’s A Dream Play, Building 110, LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island, 2:00 – 6:00

Tuesday, July 23
through
Sunday, August 18
Shakespeare in the Park: Love’s Labour’s Lost: A New Musical, songs by Michael Friedman, book adapted by Alex Timbers, directed by Alex Timbers, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, Tuesday – Sunday at 8:30

Tuesday, July 30
through
Thursday, August 1
SummerStage “This is __ Hip-Hop”: King Kong by Alfred Preisser & Randy Weiner, directed by Alfred Preisser, Herbert Von King Park, 8:00

Thursday, August 1
through
Saturday, August 17
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Richard III, directed by Hamilton Clancy, municipal parking lot, corner of Ludlow & Broome Sts.

Friday, August 2
and
Saturday, August 3
SummerStage Theatre: Diablo Love by Mando Alvarado, directed by Alfred Preisser, with music direction and composition by Tomás Doncker, Herbert Von King Park, 8:00

Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s KING KONG is part of SummerStage season

Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s KING KONG is part of SummerStage season

Monday, August 5
SummerStage “This Is __ Hip-Hop”: King Kong by Alfred Preisser & Randy Weiner, directed by Alfred Preisser, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Tuesday, August 6
Wednesday, August 7
and
Saturday, August 10
SummerStage “This Is __ Hip-Hop”: King Kong by Alfred Preisser & Randy Weiner, directed by Alfred Preisser, St. Mary’s Park, 8:00

Thursday, August 8
and
Friday, August 9
SummerStage Theatre: Diablo Love by Mando Alvarado, directed by Alfred Preisser, with music direction and composition by Tomás Doncker, St. Mary’s Park, 8:00

Tuesday, August 13
Wednesday, August 14
and
Saturday, August 17
SummerStage “This Is __ Hip-Hop”: King Kong by Alfred Preisser & Randy Weiner, directed by Alfred Preisser, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00

Thursday, August 15
and
Friday, August 16
SummerStage Theatre: Diablo Love by Mando Alvarado, directed by Alfred Preisser, with music direction and composition by Tomás Doncker, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00

Monday, August 19
SummerStage Theatre: Diablo Love by Mando Alvarado, directed by Alfred Preisser, with music direction and composition by Tomás Doncker, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Tuesday, August 20
through
Thursday, August 22
SummerStage “This Is __ Hip-Hop”: King Kong by Alfred Preisser & Randy Weiner, directed by Alfred Preisser, Marcus Garvey Park, 8:00

Friday, August 23
and
Saturday, August 24
SummerStage Theatre: Diablo Love by Mando Alvarado, directed by Alfred Preisser, with music direction and composition by Tomás Doncker, East River Park, 8:00

THE RED HOOK FEST — REBUILD, RESTORE, REBIRTH: RESILIENCE AFTER SANDY

Brooklyn’s Gangstagrass is one of the featured performers at the twentieth annual Red Hook Fest

Brooklyn’s Gangstagrass is one of the featured performers at the twentieth annual Red Hook Fest

PS 15 (71 Sullivan St.) and Louis J. Valentino Park and Pier
May 30 – June 1, free
www.dancetheatreetcetera.org

Red Hook continues its recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy with the twentieth annual Red Hook Fest, whose theme this year is “Rebuild, Restore, Rebirth: Resilience after Sandy.” The festival gets under way Thursday night at 6:00 with the Youth Kick-Off at PS 15 at 71 Sullivan St., featuring live performances from young Brooklyn artists. On Friday night at 6:00, PS 15 will host a BBQ/Dance Party. On Saturday morning, the Red Hook Rebirth Parade begins at Coffey Park at 10:00, with local businesses, individuals, school groups, art organizations, and others making their way to Valentino Park and Pier, where mainstage performances run from 12 noon to 7:00, including Brown Rice Family, Gangstagrass, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Avenida B, Nicholas Leichter Dance, and the Hungry March Band, in addition to Danced Invocations for Red Hook Recovery with Rita Silva, Vongku Pak, and Kaina Quenga. There will also be free kayak rides in New York Harbor, sponsored by Red Hook Boaters.

TIFFANY MILLS COMPANY: BERRIES AND BULLS / THE FEAST (PART 1)

Petra van Noort, Jeffrey Duval, and Kevin Ho (photo © Julie Lemberger, 2013)

Petra van Noort, Jeffrey Duval, and Kevin Ho will be part of world premiere of BERRIES AND BULLS at BAM (photo © Julie Lemberger, 2013)

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
May 30 – June 2, $20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.tiffanymillscompany.org

Over the last few years, the New York-based Tiffany Mills Company has been developing Berries and Bulls, an hour-long piece that incorporates movement and text in exploring long-term relationships, performed by four dancers. Early versions of the work were presented at Dance New Amsterdam in 2010 and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2012, but Mills has now expanded Berries and Bulls, with the world premiere of the new production taking place at BAM’s Fishman Space May 30 through June 2, featuring the original quartet (Jeffrey Duval, Kevin Ho, Emily Pope-Blackman, and Petra van Noort) along with an additional ten guest dancers (Einy Am, Lucie Baker, Ching-I Chang, John Hoobyar, Elise Knudson, Nikolas Owens, Hannah Seidel, Kensaku Shinohara, Simon Thomas-Train, and Mei Yamanaka). The text is by Dr. Peter Petralia, the founding artistic director of the British-based experimental, multidisciplinary Proto-type Theater, with a new set by Brooklyn-based visual artist Ian Trask. Also on the program is The Feast (Part 1), which examines the human condition through abundance and scarcity, nourishment and starvation, performed by five dancers and set to an original score by Jonathan Melville Pratt, with the audience involved in creating the space. Berries and Bulls and The Feast (Part 1) are part of BAM’s Professional Development Program, a collaboration with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center that benefits nonprofit arts organizations.