Ian Antal and Connie Castanzo star in New York Classical Theatre free production of Romeo & Juliet in the parks this month (photo courtesy New York Classical Theatre)
The free summer arts & culture season is under way, with dance, theater, music, art, film, and other special outdoor programs all across the city. Every week we will be recommending a handful of events. Keep watching twi-ny for more detailed highlights as well.
Sunday, June 10
Los Lobos family concert, Celebrate Brooklyn!, Prospect Park Bandshell, 3:00
Monday, June 11
Musical Chairs, with host Andy Ross and DJ Flip Bundlez, Bryant Park, preregistration suggested, 7:30
Tuesday, June 12
New York Classical Theatre: Romeo & Juliet, Central Park, enter at West 103rd St. & Central Park West, runs Tuesdays – Sundays through June 24, 7:00
Yiddish Under the Stars returns to Central Park this week (photo courtesy City Parks Foundation)
Wednesday, June 13
Yiddish Under the Stars, with Frank London and his Klezmer All Stars, Andy Statman, Pharaoh’s Daughter feat. Cantor Basya Schecter, Golem, Cantor Magda Fishman, Eleanor Reissa, Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, and Zalmen Mlotek, Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, 7:00
Thursday, June 14
Savion Glover featuring Marcus Gilmore, BAM R&B Festival at MetroTech, MetroTech Commons at MetroTech Center, 12 noon
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta will help you through those hot summer nights in Astoria Park on June 15
Friday, June 15
Drive-In Movie: Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978), Astoria Park, Nineteenth St. & Hoyt Ave. North, 8:30
Saturday, June 16
enrico d. wey: silent :: partner, River to River Festival, Federal Hall, 15 Pine St., advance RSVP required, also June 15 & 17, 8:00
After seeing Jeremy Frindel’s The Doctor from India, you’re going to want to know even more about its remarkable subject, Ayurvedic master Dr. Vasant Lad. And you can get that chance this weekend when the doctor, who is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Pune, India, makes several appearances in New York City, participating in Q&As following the 6:45 shows at the Quad on June 1 and 2 and at Symphony Space on June 2 after the 4:00 Thalia Docs screening. The documentary provides an intimate, inside look at the seventy-five-year-old founder of the Ayurvedic Institute, who nearly single-handedly brought the ancient discipline to America and the rest of the world. “When I went first during 1979, no one even knows [the] word Ayurveda,” Dr. Lad says about his initial visit to the United States. “Now Ayurveda is flourishing, flowering, and it is my mission of my guru [Hammer Baba] to spread and propagate Ayurveda in the Western world.” Frindel shows the doctor — who is not licensed in America, where the medical establishment and insurance companies do not recognize Ayurveda as legitimate medical treatment — tending to patients in Pune, both at his main office during the day with students and in a clinic where people line up every night to be diagnosed for free. “The specialty of Ayurveda is the science of the pulse. Disease can be diagnosed by examining the pulse. I will look into your constitution, your prakruti, your vikruti, and let them know of any abnormalities,” he tells a patient. A kind, gentle, spiritual soul who does yoga and meditates, Dr. Lad describes Ayurveda as “the art of living in harmony with nature, in harmony with the surroundings, and that is a beautiful thing.” Frindel also speaks with Vedic scholar Dr. David Frawley, Doctor of Oriental Medicine Claudia Welch, first American Ayurvedic physician Dr. Robert Svoboda, and layman Len Blank, who sponsored Dr. Lad’s first visit to the West. “Dr. Lad is the most significant person in a sense galvanizing the movement of Ayurveda in the entire world but starting in the United States,” says Dr. Deepak Chopra, who has a fascinating connection to Dr. Lad involving the Maharaja Mahesh Yogi.
The “Academy at Metrograph” series, a yearlong residency for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Lower East Side cinema house, concludes June 1 at 7:00 with Sideways, eclectic director Alexander Payne’s fourth film, following the underseen Citizen Ruth, the excellent Election, and the overrated About Schmidt. Sideways is fabulously entertaining from start to finish, a smart, inventive, very funny dark comedy about friendship and love set in California wine country. Paul Giamatti stars as Miles, a schlumpy wine connoisseur who is having trouble getting over his divorce and the failure of his massive novel to get published. His best friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), is getting married, so the two head off on a road trip, with Miles looking forward to sampling fine wine, and Jack anticipating sampling fine women. While Jack finds what he is looking for in Stephanie (Sandra Oh, who was married to Payne at the time), Miles seems hell-bent on not allowing himself to enjoy life, even as a beautiful woman with a deep appreciation of the grape (the excellent Virginia Madsen in what should have been a career-redefining performance) shows an interest in him. You definitely do not have to be a wine drinker to fall in love with this marvelous movie, one of the best of 2004; it was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Madsen), and Best Supporting Actor (Haden Church), and screenwriters Jim Taylor and Payne won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Taylor will be at Metrograph to talk about the movie, which will be preceded by a screening of Jeff Fowler’s 2004 Oscar-winning short, Gopher Broke, and followed by a wine tasting with vintages provided by Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
