this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

SOLID GOLD STARS: FIRST SATURDAY AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Bertha Vanayshunis will present Drag History Hour at the Brooklyn Museum on June 7

STAR-MAKERS
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 7, free with advance RSVP, 5:00 – 10:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum honors queer artists with its free Pride Month First Saturday program, “Star-Makers,” inspired by Oscar yi Hou’s The Arm Wrestle of Chip & Spike; aka: Star-Makers. The evening features live performances by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Tasha, Boston Chery, and Undocubougie; a Drag History Hour performance lecture by Bertha Vanayshun, with Dev Doee, I’m Baby, Emi Grate, Harriet Tugsmen, and Aimee Amour; a pop-up Brooklyn market featuring Depop; a voter registration drive; a Hands-On workshop in which participants will make Pride pins; the Teen Talk “Queering the Collection”; Queer Figure Drawing with the Brooklyn Loft; and a screening of Seán Devlin’s 2023 film, Asog.

In addition, the galleries will be open late so you can check out “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch,” “Brooklyn Abstraction: Four Artists, Four Walls,” “Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” “Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200,” and more.

The glittering “Solid Gold” exhibit, which comprises more than five hundred gold objects, closes July 6. Divided into such sections as “Origins of Gold,” “Design Strategies,” and “Crowned,” the exhibition includes contemporary and ancient jewelry, fashion, film clips, ceramics, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, photographs, coins, and video installations. Among the highlights are a 1930s radio, Christian Louboutin footwear, a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor and the 1963 film Cleopatra, Zadik Zadikian’s 2024 Path to Nine sculpture, Egyptian gold flakes from 1938–1759 BCE, Rembrandt’s Jan Uytenbogaert, Receiver — General (The Gold — Weigher), John Singer Sargent’s Egyptian Woman (Coin Necklace), an excerpt from King Vidor’s Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth, artifacts from James Lee Byars’s 1994 Santa Fe performance, photos by Charles “Teenie” Harris, a necklace by Alexander Calder, a nineteenth-century reclining Buddha, and dresses by the Blonds, John Galliano, Mary McFadden, Paco Rabanne, Halston, and Yves Saint Laurent. Be sure to address appropriately.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

A COFFEE HOUSE TONY AWARDS PREVIEW WITH MARK RIFKIN, SIMON JONES, DAVID BARBOUR, AND MARTHA WADE STEKETEE

Who: Simon Jones, David Barbour, Martha Wade Steketee, and Mark Rifkin, plus Steve Ross
What: Tony Awards preview and cabaret concert
Where: The Coffee House Club at the Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Ave. between Eleventh & Twelfth Sts.
When: Wednesday, June 4, free for members, $10 for nonmembers, 5:30
Why: The seventy-eighth annual Tony Awards take place Sunday, June 8, at Radio City Music Hall, but you can get a sneak peek at who the winners might be when the prestigious Coffee House Club hosts its popular Tony Awards preview on June 4. Discussing the shows nominated in the major categories will be the inimitable Martha Wade Steketee, the incomparable David Barbour, and me, moderated by the wonderful actor and raconteur Simon Jones. You can read our bios below.

The event begins at 5:30 at the Salmagundi Club and will be followed at 6:30 by “Steve Ross & Friends: Cole Porter, Sung & Unsung,” in which the legendary Crown Prince of New York Cabaret will perform favorite and surprise Porter tunes. Admission is free for members and $10 for guests; everyone is invited to an a la carte dinner afterward to continue the party with advance RSVP.

Simon Jones will moderate Tony Awards preview at the Coffee House Club on June 4 (photo by Conrad Blakemore)

Simon Jones has starred opposite Joan Collins, Lauren Bacall, Rex Harrison, Claudette Colbert, and Angela Lansbury over thirteen productions on Broadway. His most recent appearance was in Trouble in Mind at the Roundabout Theatre in 2021–22. He has recorded more than two hundred audio books. He played King George V in the first Downton Abbey movie, and his other film credits include Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street, Twelve Monkeys, Brazil, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. In a TV career spanning forty years, he remains well known for his performances as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Bridey in Brideshead Revisited, and Sir Walter Raleigh in Blackadder, and currently he is one of the stars of The Gilded Age on HBO/MAX, as Bannister the butler. Season three begins June 22.

Martha Wade Steketee is a theater-loving public policy researcher who currently practices in the fields of dramaturgy, criticism, and theater research. She serves as chair of the Drama Desk nominating committee and on several play prize committees, is a member of the Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee and past chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association, and author of the Women Count report series analyzing gender in hiring trends off Broadway since 2010.

David Barbour is editor-in-chief of Lighting & Sound America, which covers design and technology in live entertainment. He is also copresident of the Drama Desk and a member of the New York Drama Critics Circle and the Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee.

Mark Rifkin is a member of the Drama Desk and the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and has been running the online newsmagazine This Week in New York since 2001, covering art, film, theater, literature, dance, music, food, and anything else that requires someone to leave their apartment in the five boroughs. You can follow his “mad transit” adventures on Substack.

CIVIC DUTY: PRIMARY BOOTCAMP FAIR OFFERS ALTERNATIVES

NYC CIVIC FAIR
Fabrik DUMBO
20 Jay St., Suite 218
Tuesday, June 3, free with advance registration (suggested donation $10), 6:00
nycpolitics101.substack.com

If posting about politics and critical local issues on social media is not doing it for you and you want to make more of a difference, the people behind NYC Primary Bootcamp are hosting a special event on June 3 at Fabrik DUMBO. The NYC Civic Fair will give attendees a chance to connect with a variety of organizations, and one or more might be just what you’re looking for to increase your community engagement, especially with primary day approaching on June 24. Among the participating groups are ​Abundance New York, ​Climate Club Friends, ​Indivisible BK, ​Maximum New York, ​New Kings Democrats, ​New Liberals, ​Open New York, ​Open Plans, ​Regional Plan Association, ​Riders Alliance, ​Sunrise Movement NYC, and ​Transportation Alternatives. Admission is free, but there is a suggested donation of ten bucks if you can afford it in order to cover the cost of food and drink.

The fair is part of the grander Primary Bootcamp, in which registrants accumulate points as they complete as many actions as they can, from signing up for a community board newsletter and following both their city council member and state assembly person on social media to planning a volunteer day and reminding five people to register to vote by June 14. The word “civic” is disappearing from our discourse and the subject is no longer being taught in schools, so there’s no better time than right now to work to keep it alive.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

CELEBRATING CHARLOTTE: HONORING PIONEER ZWERIN AT METROGRAPH

Charlotte Zwerin is being celebrated with three-film series at Metrograph (photo courtesy Warner Bros. / Everett)

CHARLOTTE ZWERIN — VÉRITÉ PIONEER: SALESMAN (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1969)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Saturday, May 31, 5:10, and Thursday, June 5, 4:40
metrograph.com

Fifty-six years ago, brothers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin made the highly influential black-and-white documentary Salesman, an intimate portrait of four traveling door-to-door Bible salesmen: Jamie Baker, Raymond Martos, Charles McDevitt, and particularly Boston’s Paul Brennan. “Go out there and get ’em,” their boss, who doesn’t exactly follow the teachings of Jesus, declares as they prepare to spread the word of the Lord, although more to earn a living than as a religious calling. The shots of Brennan singing “If I Were a Rich Man” in the snow are priceless, but the end will haunt you. Without Salesman, there probably never would have been a Glengarry Glen Ross and so many other films. All these years later, this fascinating piece of Americana, which was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1992, still feels fresh and relevant in these hard times.

The Maysles brothers and Zwerin went on to make other documentaries that redefined the nonfiction genre, including Gimme Shelter, and Zwerin scored a major solo success with the unforgettable Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser. Presented by ACE (the American Cinema Editors), Salesman is screening May 31 and June 5 in the Metrograph series “Charlotte Zwerin: Vérité Pioneer,” honoring the Direct Cinema leader, who died in 2004 at the age of seventy-two; the tribute also features Gimme Shelter and Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser. The May 31 showing of Salesman will be followed by a panel discussion with editor-directors Mirra Bank, Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke, and Muffie Meyer, moderated by Michael Schulman.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

MAN OF IRON: ANDRZEJ WAJDA CELEBRATED AT NYPFF20

Martin Scorsese will introduce Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds at New York Polish Film Festival

NEW YORK POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
Scandinavia House
58 Park Ave. at 38th St.
Directors Guild Theater
110 West 57th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
May 27-31, all access pass $150
nypff.com

“I accept this great honor not as a personal tribute but as a tribute to all of Polish cinema,” Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda said upon accepting his honorary lifetime achievement Oscar from Jane Fonda in 2000. “The subject of many of our films was the war, the atrocities of Nazism, and the tragedies brought by communism. This is why today I thank the American friends of Poland and my compatriots for helping my country rejoin the family of democratic nations, rejoin the Western civilizations, its institutions and security structures. My fervent hope is that the only flames people will encounter will be the great passions of the heart — love, gratitude, and solidarity.”

That passion will be on view at the twentieth edition of the New York Polish Film Festival, which celebrates the life and career of the Suwałki-born director and resistance fighter who died in 2016 at the age of ninety — not many honorary Academy Award winners go on to live another sixteen years and make eight more films. Running May 27–31 at the Directors Guild Theater and Scandinavia House — no need to check your map; Scandinavia still consists only of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — the festival will be screening eleven works, six by Wajda and five by contemporary filmmakers that reveal Wajda’s legacy.

NYPFF20 includes Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds, Kanał, The Promised Land, Everything for Sale, and the Oscar-nominated Man of Iron and Katyń. The fest kicks off with 1957’s Kanał, which will be preceded by a reception and followed by a panel discussion. Polish cinema fan Martin Scorsese will introduce Ashes and Diamonds at the May 28 gala; “It announced the arrival of a master filmmaker,” has said of the war movie, which completed a trilogy begun with A Generation and Kanał. The extraordinary Katyń examines a brutal WWII massacre; the film stars Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Zmijewski, and Pawel Malaszynski, with a score by the great Krzysztof Penderecki.

Among the 2024 Polish selections are Xawery Żuławski’s Kulej: All That Glitters Isn’t Gold, about boxer Jerzy Kulej; Julie Rubio’s documentary The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival; and Magnus Von Horn’s crime drama The Girl with the Needle

Below is the full schedule.

Tuesday, May 27
Kanał (Canal) (Andrzej Wajda, 1957), preceded by a reception and followed by a panel discussion with professors Annette Insdorf and Rafal Syska, Scandinavia House, $30, 5:00

Under the Volcano (Pod wulkanem) (Damian Kocur, 2024), Scandinavia House, $25, 8:30

Wednesday, May 28
Opening night gala: Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament) (Andrzej Wajda, 1958), introduced by Martin Scorsese, Directors Guild Theatre, $50, 7:15

Thursday, May 29
Everything for Sale (Wszystko na sprzedaż) (Andrzej Wajda, 1969), with special guest Małgorzata Potocka, Scandinavia House, $25, 5:30

The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana) (Andrzej Wajda, 1975), introduced by Annette Insdorf, Scandinavia House, $25, 8:15

Friday, May 30
Forest (Las) (Lidia Duda, 2024), Scandinavia House, $25, 4:30

Katyń (Andrzej Wajda, 2007), Scandinavia House, $25, 6:15

The Girl with the Needle (Dziewczyna z igłą) (Magnus Von Horn, 2024), Scandinavia House, $25, 8:30

Saturday, May 31
Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) (Andrzej Wajda, 1981), Scandinavia House, $25, 1:30

The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival (Julie Rubio, 2024), Scandinavia House, $25, 4:30

Kulej: All That Glitters Isn’t Gold (Kulej. Dwie strony medalu) (Xawery Żuławski, 2024), Scandinavia House, $25, 6:30

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

PERSEVERING FOR THE TRUTH: THEATER FESTIVAL HONORS VÁCLAV HAVEL

REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL: PERSEVERANCE
Bohemian National Hall (unless otherwise noted)
321 East 73rd St. between First & Second Aves.
May 26 – June 15, free – $15
rehearsalfortruth.org

Founded in 2017, Rehearsal for Truth is an annual festival that honors the legacy of Czech playwright, dissident, and president Václav Havel. Presented by the Václav Havel Center and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, This year’s iteration features theater, opera, music, poetry, and more from Czechia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and other nations.

“Rehearsal for Truth is a rare opportunity to hear artistic voices from Central and Eastern Europe,” festival artistic director Edward Einhorn explained in a statement. “The theme of the 2025 edition is Perseverance. The worldwide turn towards autocracy and war is both current and historically familiar for the artists from this region, and their responses have a deep resonance now for Americans, as we experience our own crises. My hope is that the work presented in the festival can connect our experiences and help us guide us as we all try to persevere through difficult times.”

The centerpiece is the US premiere of Blood, Sweat, and Queers, a seventy-five-minute piece about intersex Czech track star Zdenek Koubek (1913–86) and fascism, coproduced by Einhorn’s Untitled Theater Company No. 61. Other highlights include Belarus Free Theatre’s King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, Alexander Manuiloff’s interactive The Decision, and an evening of music and poetry with Marketa Foukalova, Jan Zábrana, and Martin Brunner.

Havel (1936–2011) wrote such plays as The Garden Party and The Memorandum and such books as Living in Truth and Toward a Civil Society; he also wrote and directed the 2011 film Leaving. In a 1968 letter to Alexander Dubček, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Havel explained, “Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance,” words to live by in today’s international maelstrom.

Tickets for most events are free (with a suggested donation of $10-$15) and require advance RSVP. Below is the full schedule.

Hura Collective’s Erben: Vlasy is part of Rehearsal for Truth festival honoring Václav Havel

Monday, May 26
through
Sunday, June 15
Blood, Sweat, and Queers, coproduced by Untitled Theater Company No. 61, by Tomas Dianiška, translated by Edward Einhorn and Katarina Vizina, directed by Edward Einhorn, starring Craig Anderson, Herschel Blatt, Jean Marie Keevins, Alyssa Simon, Katarina Vizina, and Hennessy Winkler, followed by a talk with Chris Harwood on May 26 and Michael Waters on May 30, $10-$20

Tuesday, May 27
Marketa Foukalova, featuring vocalist Markéta Foukalová, with poems by Jan Zábrana and music by Martin Brunner, followed by a discussion with Chris Harwood, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

Thursday, May 29
The Decision, interactive theater created by Alexander Manuiloff, directed by Irina Kruzhilina, Bohemian National Hall, followed by a discussion with the author, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

Sunday, June 1
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, by Belarus Free Theatre, from the book by Uladzimir Karatkievich, adapted by Nicolai Khalezin, with music by Olga Podgaiskaya, directed by Natalia Kaliada, free ($10 suggested donation), 2:00

Connection, solo livestream from Salzburg, created and performed by Maryna Yakubovich, followed by a discussion and reception, free ($15 suggested donation), 5:00 – 9:30

Wednesday, June 4
The Pit, written by Matei Visneic, directed by Ana Margineanu, starring Owen Campbell, Vas Eli, and Perri Yaniv, followed by a discussion with the artists, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

Friday, June 6
Staged Reading: Show Trial, about Czech politician and resistance leader Milada Horáková, written by Laura Zlatos, directed by Tom Costello, followed by a discussion with the author, $15, 7:00

Saturday, June 7
Furiozo: Man Looking for Trouble, created by Piotr Sikora, followed by a reception with the artist, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

Sunday, June 8
Erben: Vlasy, by Hura Collective, with direction, set, puppets, and music by Hza Bažant, starring Hza Bažant and Leona Bažant Telínová, followed by a demonstration of puppetry techniques and history, free ($15 suggested donation), 5:00 & 7:00

Stella Abel will perform Psyche June 12 & 13, in English then Hungarian

Wednesday, June 11
The Amateurs, written by Lenka Garajová, directed by Šimon Ferstl, starring Šimon Ferstl, Jakub Jablonský, Lenka Libjaková, Martin ISO Krajčír, Kriss Krimm, and Tomáš Pokorný, followed by a discussion with the artists, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

Thursday, June 12, in English, 7:00 & 9:00
and
Friday, June 13, in Hungarian, 7:00
Psyché: Writings of an Erstwhile Poetess, from poems by Sándor Weöres, translated by David Cseh, directed by Mark Tarnoki, performed by Stella Abel, the Hungarian House, 213 East 82nd St., free (donations encouraged)

Friday, June 13
Kafka’s Ape, adapted by Phala Ookeditse, performed by Tony Miyambo, Bohemian National Hall, followed by a discussion with the artists, free ($15 suggested donation), 7:00

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING: FREE SUMMER NYC THEATER 2025

The free summer theater season kicked off this month with Molière in the Park’s The Imaginary Invalid (photo by Russ Rowland)

The Public Theater is back presenting Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte after a yearlong revitalization, but there are plenty more places to catch the Bard and others for free as well, listed below. Note that some productions strongly suggest advance RSVP and involve moving to multiple locations during the performance.

Through May 25
Molière in the Park: Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, starring Tony nominee Sahr Ngaujah, the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, Prospect Park, free with RSVP, 3:00 or 7:30

Thursday, May 29
through
Sunday, June 22
Hudson Classical Theater Company: Julius Caesar, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, West Eighty-Ninth St. & Riverside Dr., Riverside Park, 6:30

Thursday, May 29
through
Sunday, June 29
The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Rebecca Martínez, with music and lyrics by Julián Mesri, Astor Plaza (May 29-31), the New York Public Library & Bryant Park (June 3-8), Wolfe’s Pond Park (June 11), J. Hood Wright Park (June 12-14), the Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine (June 15), Sunset Park (June 17-18), A.R.R.O.W. Field House (June 20), Queens Night Market (June 21), Roy Wilkins Park (June 22), Maria Hernandez Park (June 25), St. Mary’s Park (June 26), Travers Park (June 27), the Peninsula in Prospect Park (June 28-29)

Saturday, May 31
Barefoot Shakespeare Company: Unrehearsed! The Comedy of Errors, Summit Rock, Central Park, 5:30

Tuesday, June 3
through
Sunday, July 6
NY Classical: All’s Well That Ends Well, Central Park (June 3-22), Carl Schurz Park (June 24-29), Battery Park (July 1-6), free with RSVP, 7:00

Wednesday, June 4
through
Sunday, June 29
Smith Street Stage: Shakespeare in Carroll Park: Henry V, Carroll Park

Thursday, June 12
through
Sunday, June 22
Shakespeare Downtown: Tennessee Williams’s Tiger Tail, Castle Clinton, Battery Park, 6:30

Saturday, June 21
through
Sunday, July 20
Boomerang Theatre Company: Richard II, Central Park West & Sixty-Ninth St., Central Park, $1.70, 2:00

Thursday, June 26
through
Sunday, July 20
Hudson Classical Theater Company: Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, West Eighty-Ninth St. & Riverside Dr., Riverside Park, 6:30

Saturday, July 5
through
Sunday, July 27
The Classical Theatre of Harlem: Memnon, by Will Power, starring Eric Berryman, Richard Rodgers Amphitheater, Marcus Garvey Park

Thursday, July 24
through
Sunday, August 17
Hudson Classical Theater Company: Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, West Eighty-Ninth St. & Riverside Dr., Riverside Park, 6:30

Tuesday, August 5
through
Saturday, August 23
Hip to Hip Theater: Hamlet and The Tempest, preceded by children’s workshop, nine locations

Thursday, August 7
through
Sunday, September 14
Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night, starring Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Peter Dinklage, Khris Davis, Junior Nyong’o, Moses Sumney, b, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 8:00

Saturday, August 23
Barefoot Shakespeare Company: Unrehearsed! The Comedy of Errors, Summit Rock, Central Park, 4:00

Friday, August 29
through
Tuesday, September 2
Pericles: A Public Works Concert Experience, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, music and lyrics by Troy Anthony, directed by Carl Cofield

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]