Pioneers Go East Collective’s Lucky Star (0.3) takes place at Judson Memorial Church July 13-30
LUCKY STAR (0.3)
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South between Thompson & Sullivan Sts.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, July 13-30, free with RSVP, 8:00 www.judson.org pioneersgoeast.org
Pioneers Go East Collective honors the history of DIY queer artmaking at such famed New York City venues as La MaMa, Judson Memorial Church, and the Pyramid Club in Lucky Star (0.3), a free multidisciplinary performance installation taking place Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8:00 at Judson from July 13 to 30. Inspired by Club 57, which was recently highlighted in the documentary Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, the in-person work consists of five episodes featuring dance/performance artists Shaina and Bryan Baira, Bree Breeden, Daniel Diaz, Beth Graczyk, and Joey Kipp and nightlife icon Agosto Machado. Lucky Star (0.3) was written by creative director Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte and production designer Philip Treviño, with choreography by Ori Flomin, film by Jon Burklund and video designer Kathleen Kelley, set design and fabrication by Mark Tambella, and sound by Marielle Iljazoski and Ryan William Downey.
“Lucky Star was born by a desire to make art in a new time,” the collective said in a statement. “We pay homage to creators and legends whose trailblazing work has solidified ways for us to survive as artists reimagining our approach to sharing our work in the age of social media and instant gratification. We term the project a meta-creative journey inviting viewers to engage in an emergent process of collective liberation.” Inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem “Pioneers, O Pioneers!” (“O you youths, Western youths, / So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, / Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, / Pioneers! O pioneers!”), Pioneers Go East Collective was founded in 2010 to “empower a collective of thought-provoking, adventurous, and proud LGBTQ artists . . . dedicated to Latinx, BIPOC, and immigrant artists and teaching artists and their communities in all five boroughs, [exploring] stories of vulnerability and courage for social change.” Admission to Lucky Star (0.3) is free with advance RSVP.
Who:John Schaefer,Michael Harrison, W. H. S. Gebel, Ashley Bathgate, Tim Fain What: Online album release party and discussion Where:Arts Letters & Numbers YouTube When: Wednesday, June 30, free with RSVP, 7:00 Why: “I wanted to show how beautiful simple harmonies can be, especially in just intonation . . . and [to create a work] that would serve as an introduction inviting listeners and musicians to start perceiving just intonation as an infinite harmonic system encompassing limitless possibilities on a spectrum between simplicity and complexity,” contemporary classical composer and pianist Michael Harrison says about his new album, Seven Sacred Names (Cantaloupe Music, June 2021). On June 30 at 7:00, Harrison, a Guggenheim Fellow, will celebrate the album’s release with an online party and discussion featuring cellist Ashley Bathgate and violinist Tim Fain, who both play on the record, and author, astrophysicist, and modern Sufi mystic W. H. S. Gebel, who wrote the liner notes and whose book Nature’s Hidden Dimension: Envisioning the Inner Life of the Universe served as inspiration to Harrison. Seven Sacred Names is a song cycle consisting of seven compositions and a reprise about “an awakening primal Self,” according to Gebel; the songs include “”Hayy: Revealing the Tones,” “Alim: Polyphonic Raga Malkauns,” “Qadr: Etude in Raga Bhimpalasi,” and “Sami: The Acoustic Constellation,” with such guests as Roomful of Teeth, Ina Filip, violist Caleb Burhans, tabla percussionist Ritvik Yaparpalvi, and composer/dhrupad/vocalist Payton MacDonald.
Harrison writes about one of the songs, “‘Al Mureed’ is the fourth of the seven names and signifies the birth of desire, the motivation needed to direct the will which awakens as a response to the dawning of relationship. The created world has become more interesting because now there is love, lover, and beloved; there is the possibility of relationship and of learning about and understanding the divine qualities as they manifest by sensing their vibration.” The event, which is presented by Arts Letters & Numbers as part of the “SunShip: The Arc That Makes the Flood Possible” exhibition for the CITYX Venice Italian Virtual Pavilion at the seventeenth Venice Architecture Biennale and is free with advance RSVP, will be hosted by John Schaefer of WNYC’s New Sounds.
The collaborative Harlem Air Shaft features art, dance, music, spoken word, and activism
Who: James Brandon Lewis, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Kwami Coleman, Todd Bryant Weeks, Bianca Cosentino, Dolores Sanchez, Emily Tellier, Omari Wiles What:Experimental multidisciplinary street performance ritual exploring links between jazz and memory in Harlem Where: 126th & 125th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves. When: Thursday, June 24, free, 5:00 Why: Conceived by new media artist Justin Randolph Thompson, choreographer Stefanie Nelson, and visual artist Bradly Dever Treadaway, Harlem Air Shaft takes place on June 24 at 5:00, a forty-minute live performance that recalls the rent parties of the 1930s and 1940s. Melding jazz and memory through ritual, the improvisatory, immersive piece features dancers Bianca Cosentino, Dolores Sanchez, Emily Tellier, and Omari Wiles, saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, musicologist Kwami Coleman, and jazz union representative Todd Bryant Weeks, paying tribute to the community and local jazz history, including Duke Ellington (whose 1940 composition lends its name to the work), in the neighborhood where Art Kane took his famous “A Great Day in Harlem” photo.
“With Harlem Air Shaft, I continue the work that started with Friskin’ the Whiskers – a performance project I initiated in 2014 which focuses on bringing together people connected to the jazz community to highlight the economic realities in which jazz musicians have to function,” Thompson said in a statement. “Jazz and economy have a long and complicated history where strategies for developing new systems of community support have always been prevalent. The pandemic made evident to all what many of us already knew. To me, the various forms of cultural production as represented by practitioners from different fields in this piece speaks to the constant need for reminding ourselves about art’s inherent social dimension.” Nelson added, “I have a longstanding interest in the fleeting nature of memory, which I have been exploring in numerous projects with my dance ensemble. Justin, who has been my collaborator over the years, gave me an idea of presenting this concept in the context of jazz and the history of this unique neighborhood. We would like for this piece to inspire the memory of Harlem’s resilient past for a more hopeful, community-driven, creative future.” Admission is free, with no RSVP required.
Who: Alan Cumming, Vivian Reed, Sam Harris, Mary Testa, Karen Mason, Nathan Lee Graham, Jose Llana, Margo Seibert, Jane Monheit, Grace McLean, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Nadia Quinn, Duchess Trio, Gabrielle Stravelli, Kim David Smith, Justin Sayre What: Pride concert to benefit the Ali Forney Center Where:Night of a Thousand Judys When: Thursday, June 24, free (donations encouraged), 8:00 Why: It turns out that Cary Grant never actually said, “Judy, Judy, Judy.” However, it will be nothing but “Judy, Judy, Judy . . .” at the ninth annual “Night of a Thousand Judys,” a virtual benefit for the Ali Forney Center, whose mission is “to protect LGBTQ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently.” A celebration of all things Judy Garland, past events have featured Martha Wash, Sarah Dash, Madeleine Peyroux, Ann Hampton Callaway, Nellie McKay, Lena Hall, Tonya Pinkins, Liz Callaway, Telly Leung, Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Karen Akers, and Michael Musto. The 2021 iteration takes place on June 24 at 8:00 with Alan Cumming, Vivian Reed, Sam Harris, Mary Testa, Karen Mason, Margo Seibert, Jane Monheit, Grace McLean, Nadia Quinn, and others, written and hosted by Justin Sayre, with Tracy Stark serving as music director. “We’re all getting back to normal, but maybe we can make a new normal,” Sayre said in a statement. “A normal where LGBTQIA kids don’t experience homelessness at such a larger rate than most. Maybe our new normal can be better, for these kids. Maybe we can insist that it is. We all had to stay at home this year to be safe. We all deserve a home where they can be safe. That’s what the work, that’s the new normal that the Ali Forney Center is fighting for. We’re all honored to help them creating this new normal.” The stream will be available on demand for about a month; in addition, there is an online auction where you can pick up some Judy Garland art starting at $150.
Who: Heather Christian, Mykal Kilgore, Carla R. Stewart, Ali Stroker, Marinda Anderson, Cassie Beck, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Aya Cash, Kirsten Childs, Milo Cramer, Sarah DeLappe, Larissa FastHorse, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Peter Friedman, Dave Harris, Lucas Hnath, Michael R. Jackson, Sylvia Khoury, Taylor Mac, Matt Maher, John-Andrew Morrison, Kelli O’Hara, Annie Parisse, Pedro Pascal, Max Posner, Tori Sampson, Rhea Seehorn, Lois Smith, Paul Sparks, Jeremy Strong, Sanaz Toossi, more What: Fiftieth anniversary virtual gala Where:Playwrights Horizons online When: Wednesday, June 23, free with RSVP (donations encouraged), 8:00 Why: Over the course of fifty years, seven Pulitzer Prizes, thirteen Tony Awards, and forty-seven Obies, Playwrights Horizons has lived up to its mission as “a writer’s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists and to the production of their new work.” On June 23 at 8:00, PH will celebrate its golden anniversary with a virtual gala featuring appearances by a wide range of creators with connections to the company, which is based on West Forty-Second St. The evening will be highlighted by a quartet of performances: Carla R. Stewart singing “Lifted” from Tori Sampson’s If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka, Mykal Kilgore singing “Memory Song” from Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, Heather Christian delivering “Recessional” from Prime: A Practical Breviary, and Ali Stroker singing “Her Sweater” from Kirsten Guenther and Ryan Scott Oliver’s Mrs. Sharp. In addition, among those wishing PH a happy anniversary will be Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Sarah DeLappe, Larissa FastHorse, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lucas Hnath, Taylor Mac, Kelli O’Hara, Annie Parisse, Pedro Pascal, Lois Smith, and Paul Sparks.
Who: Jordan Klepper, Fred Armisen, Maura Tierney, Thomas Sadoski, Arian Moayed, Annie McNamara, April Matthis, Vin Knight, Young Jean Lee, Joel Perez, Yo La Tengo What: Virtual gala Where:Elevator Repair Service online When: Wednesday, June 23, $25-$500, 7:30 (private virtual cocktail reception at 7:00 for donors of $2,500+) Why: During the Trump era, comedian Jordan Klepper has been one of the funniest, move insightful television journalists around, in his “Fingers the Pulse” segments on The Daily Show, in which he fearlessly goes straight into the heart of the MAGAverse, speaking with Trumpists who are not in on the joke. He has also hosted his own satirical series, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, as well as the influential special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns. On June 23 at 7:30, the Michigan-born Klepper, a former member of the Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade, will be hosting The Tonight Zoom with Jordan Klepper A Celebration of Live Theatre (remotely) (and partially pre-taped), a virtual gala benefiting New York City experimental theater stalwarts Elevator Repair Service.
Founded in 1991 by artistic director John Collins, ERS has developed a unique theatrical language over its thirty years, presenting collaborative works that often reimagine literary classics into something new and unpredictable at such venues as the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, the New York Public Library, and PS122. Among their shows are Marx Brothers on Horseback Salad,The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928),Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf,The Select (The Sun Also Rises),Measure for Measure, and their widely acclaimed Gatz, an eight-hour adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
At the virtual gala, Klepper will interview ERS company members Vin Knight, April Matthis, and Annie McNamara as characters they have portrayed in the troupe’s productions; there will also be appearances by Fred Armisen, Maura Tierney, Thomas Sadoski, Arian Moayed, Young Jean Lee, Joel Perez, and Yo La Tengo. It might be called “a celebration of live theatre,” but, in true Klepper/ERS style, they are pointing out that it will take place remotely, with some prerecorded segments. Tickets start at $25 and go up to $10,000 for the Gold Virtual Table, which includes a preshow cocktail reception for twelve people, tickets to ERS’s upcoming adaptation of The Seagull at the Skirball Center, and select merchandise.
A few minutes into Woolly Mammoth’s stream of Heather Christian’s pandemic-filmed Animal Wisdom, I grew terribly upset with myself: How in the world did I miss this remarkable show when it premiered at the Bushwick Starr in 2017?
Extended on demand through June 27, this new iteration of Animal Wisdom is an intimate and rapturous confessional of music and storytelling, an ingenious journey into the personal and communal nature of ritual and superstition, of grief and loss, of ghosts and, most intently, the fear of death. Presented by DC’s Woolly Mammoth and San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, the 135-minute show is a movie/theater/concert hybrid and a melding of public séance and stirring revival meeting, with film direction by Amber McGinnis and stage direction by Emilyn Kowaleski. They create a unique and special experience that the audience can feel a part of even though they are at home watching a recording, which is especially enhanced if they follow Christian’s request that each viewer gather four elements so they can participate in the proceedings.
“This performance was never supposed to happen on film,” Christian says directly into the camera early on. “I guess that’s obvious. But contrary to what it looks like, it wasn’t supposed to happen in a theater either. It was supposed to happen in a defunct church or holy space, but houses of any kind are deconsecrated and reconsecrated all the time, so I guess we’re not so far off. Anyways, maybe at least yours is already haunted.”
Animal Wisdom was filmed onstage at DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Singer-songwriter and pianist Christian is joined by her band, guitarist and cellist Sasha Brown, bassists Fred Epstein and B. E. Farrow, percussionist Eric Farber, and violinist Maya Sharpe, as she travels back to her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, sharing tales about her deceased grandparents amid original songs that range from country and blues to folk and gospel, with such titles as “Well Made Fish,” “Wild Thing’s Daughter,” “Dies Irae” (“Day of Wrath”), and “Libera Me,” eschewing conventional hook-laden sing-along pop and standard theatrical orchestrations. She makes regular comparisons between her relatives and such animals and insects as mosquitoes, birds, coyotes, elephants, cicadas, and cats, which explains the name of the work.
“When I say ‘Love is in the garden,’” she says after singing that song, “I mean that. I mean that because: When my grandma Heloise died, she up and put herself in the plants, and so I go to the garden to talk to her and rip up weeds when I am heartbroken. When I say ‘Grandmother’s a red bird’ — I mean that too. When my grandmother Geraldine died, she threw her ghost into a cardinal. As a bird, she was hard to pin down for conversation so I tattooed a red feather on my arm. Hasn’t totally worked if Imma be honest. When I say Grandaddy’s in the car, he is, and when I say ‘Praise be the wrecking ball,’ I mean my brain. That one’s a metaphor. I don’t know about you but my brain is a wrecking ball.”
She later admits, “The women in my matrilineal line are New Orleans Catholics who are also musicians who suffer migraines and talk to dead people. There are three of us. Ella, Heloise, Heather. Skipped my mom. Don’t know what that’s about.”
Director of photography Aiden Korotkin follows Christian — primarily wearing a “Lux Aeterna” T-shirt, the communion antiphon for the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass — as she moves about Christopher Bowser’s intricately designed stage, from pianos to a carousel slideshow with theater seats, from a small table with an old telephone (with a cord) to a shrine to her grandma Ella, from various lamps and candles to a soda vending machine and other unexpected items, centered on a circle of overlapping rugs to give it a homey feel. She and the band also wander through Woolly Mammoth’s hallways and lobby, reminding us of the physical space of theater.
An NYU grad, film composer, and leader of the band Heather Christian & the Arbornauts, Christian is spellbinding in Animal Wisdom, capturing our attention from the very beginning and never letting go as she openly and honestly details critical moments in her life, her dark eyes and round face captivating. Christian is a multitalented creator who has recently released the audio work Prime: A Practical Breviary for Playwrights Horizons and the video collaboration I Am Sending You the Sacred Face for Theater in Quarantine on YouTube, and she will premiere the Covid-delayed Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova next spring. She leaves nothing behind in Animal Wisdom, one of the best virtual shows to come out during the pandemic, baring her heart and soul, a magnetic force in full command of the stage, her supporting cast, and her bewitched audience.
“I’m gonna tell you what I think about the soul,” she says to us. “So we should make friends real quick, ’cause that’s heavy. Hum with me like this?” I dare you not to listen to her and hum along; it’s impossible to not join Christian on this fabulous interactive ride through metaphorical and metaphysical ghosts that haunt us all.
