THE PUBLIC THEATER’S MOBILE UNIT TWELFTH NIGHT DIRECTED BY SAHEEM ALI | Free Sit-Down Run at The Public To Celebrate 60th Anniversary of The Public’s Mobile Unit April 24 – May 14

The late, great Joseph Papp, who founded The Public Theater in 1954, was a visionary, without question, and had practiced diversity and inclusion from the very beginning. His passion still lives within the walls of the famed [The] Public Theater which was become, over the years, a launching place for some of the best in theater.

Papp loved the work of William Shakespeare whose work was written and performed for the common people not the high brow crowd that’s hijacked it away. It was, at the time of the writing, the language of the ordinary urban folks and Papp believed in taking Shakespeare back to the streets which, I can only imagine, would make the William Shakespeare proud as punch!

Even before the physical theater, Papp began the famed Mobile Unit which celebrated it’s 60th anniversary, in 1957, with a production of Romeo and Juliet, which he directed with Bryarly Lee and Stephen Joyce in the titular roles. The 1957 Mobile Unit tour received early support from New York City authorities.

Stanley Lowell, then deputy mayor, was an early champion for free theater and mobilized city resources and departments to support Papp's production. The first Mobile Unit rolled up to performance venues across the city in borrowed Department of Sanitation vehicles with a wooden folding stage mounted to a truck bed and portable seating risers to accommodate 700 people per venue.

The city's Parks Department permitted performances in local parks across all five boroughs. Subsequent productions included Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Ti- Jean and His Brothers, Take One Step, Unfinished Women Cry in No Man’s Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage, and Volpone, among many others.

To commemorate the anniversary of the Mobile Unit, for the first time the sit- down run of TWELFTH NIGHT, directed by Saheem Ali, will be performed at The Public Theater—free—running Monday, April 24 through Sunday, May 14 with an official press opening on Thursday, April 27.

TWELFTH NIGHT is an adventurous tale about a young shipwrecked immigrant,Viola, who takes a chance on the “wet foot, dry foot” policy of the mid- ‘90s and washes up amidst the shore of glitzy Illyria, Florida, she finds herself a stranger in a fabulously strange new land. Thinking her twin brother has drowned, Viola throws herself into a new gig as assistant to Orsino, a wealthy Floridian with a serious case of love sickness for a wealthy lady, Olivia. Having disguised herself as a boy to become Orsino’s right hand man, Viola (now Cesario) is tasked with delivering his adoring valentines. But as Viola woos in her boss’s name, she falls head over spiky heels for the man himself, while Olivia turns her affections to the intriguing TWELFTH Night’s director SAHEEM ALI was born from Nairobi, Kenya, and his best known for his work as a theater director for both plays and musicals with an emphasis on new work. TWELFTH NIGHT features scenic design is by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Dede Ayite, music composition by Michael Thurber, movement direction by Tanya Birl, and fight direction by Lisa Kopitsky.

“Twelfth Night is a perfect production to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Mobile Unit. We hope that making our run at The Public free is just the beginning of expanding the legacy of Free Shakespeare in the Park,” said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “Saheem Ali has been a friend and colleague for years, and I’m delighted to welcome him to his first show at The Public.”

TWELFTH NIGHT will run at The Public Theater from Monday, April 24 through Sunday, May 14 in the LuEsther Theater, with an official press opening on Thursday, April 27.

Visit www.publictheater.org for more information.

The Pond Theatre Company’s Inaugural Production - Mike Leigh’s “Abigail's Party”

Anytime there’s an opportunity to see something created by award-winning British playwright/filmmaker Mike Leigh, it’s usually a worthwhile experience— though it’s not necessarily a pleasant one. 

While rife with humor, The Pond Theatre Company’s recent production of Leigh’s 1977 play “Abigail’s Party” makes for an engaging, though sometimes frustrating, work. It’s not frustrating because of any flaws in the writing, acting or staging — in fact the prim and proper setting of a 1970s English middle-class living room offers an ideal setting for the acidic and dark experience that was offered on this stage. The Pond, a brand new theater company focused on Irish and British plays (this is its inaugural production) did a bang-up job with both this cast and the direction by Lee Brock.

Rather, it’s the characters themselves that make it torturous, not because of any artificiality in dialogue or action; rather, it’s because the people are so real you want to step on stage and smack them few times throughout the two hours that commences here. 

Pop songs insinuate themselves throughout the play which reveals the banality of these characters as they come in and out of this living room. Once the boozing begins, the action gets launched and the acidic dialogue really kicks in. 

None of the characters are particularly bright or interesting; they really have nothing significant to say. And most annoying is Beverly who pushes everyone into guzzling more drink — as if to excuse her own angry, stupid uptightness and her need to justify her own failings which get smoothed over by intoxication. Though it seems like she just wants everyone to enjoy themselves she’s really catalyzing chaos through her own self-loathing.

The basic action is deceptively simple. Set in the London suburb of Essex, Beverly (Sarah Street) and Laurence (John Pirkis) invite new neighbors Angela (Lily Dorment) and Tony (Nick Hetherington) over for a welcome drink. They’re joined by Susan (Colleen Clinton), another neighbor whose 16-year old daughter Abigail is having a party at her flat. She’s come to the neighbor’s flat to escape the party’s outward chaos only to experience an inner turmoil stirred up in this tacky living room.

As they drink throughout the night, they comically and tragically drop their guard — and emotional disaster ensues. The anger inherent in much of Leigh's material is really present here with little ornamentation. His goal of flailing the English middle class is succinctly accomplished. And this early work of his illustrates the evolution of themes he explores in later plays and films.

Much like American playwright Neil Labute, Leigh unapologetically shows how ridiculous people can be in the most conventional of settings but, unlike his fellow playwright, they aren’t entirely unredeemable — just boorish.

Sadly, this play’s run has ended but there are more productions coming up in collaboration with the Barrow Group (a 30-year-old award-winning theater company) at their West 36th Street home. For future productions go to: www.thepondtheatre.org 

TBG Theatre at The Barrow Group
312 W. 36th St.
Midtown West
866-811-4111
www.barrowgroup.org

Off Broadway Comedy/Drama
Written by Mike Leigh; Directed by Lee Brock
Cast: Lily Dorment, Colleen Clinton, Sarah Street, Nick Hetherington and John Pirkis

"An Italian Miracle" and works of Dario D'Ambrosi

Last night was the one-night event at La MaMa, "An Italian Miracle" an evening in which highlighted theater and film works of Dario D'Ambrosi, along with a film and discussion about "The Integrated Theatre of Emotion," the Italian university curriculum in theater arts for the mentally disabled, which D'Ambrosi and associates have created in Rome.  

D'Ambrosi is founder of the theatrical movement named Pathological Theater (Teatro Patologico).  "The Integrated Theatre of Emotion" is a university program that academically and professionally prepares people for careers in theater arts who are schizophrenic, catatonic, manic depressive, autistic or born with Down Syndrome.

"The Integrated Theatre of Emotion" has been fully operational for almost a year now at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in one of Rome's outer boroughs, and has been revolutionary in the lives of people with mental disabilities and their families. The La MaMa evening will feature video clips, exclusive testimonials and presentations of results of scientific studies that demonstrate the accomplishments of the program, presenting it as a model that could be used worldwide to help give back to many marginalized people their deserved dignity.

Here are details of last night's program:

6:00 PM – 7:30 PM 

Excerpts from play, "The Buzzing of the Flies" by Dario D'Ambrosi, performed by Greta Scacchi and Giorgio Colangeli.

In a world without madness, a team of scientists and psychiatrists is working on a new ambitious project: to bring back folly to the earth, in order to fight boredom and depression. They capture the last three crazy people in the world: a failed painter, an absent minded dreamer and a sweet and sensitive piano player.  First, the scientists observe the three for a while; then, with a surreal theatrical staging that is a form of therapy, they bring them back to their original day to day life, where their madness probably started. This "medically approved performance" is directed by this chief psychiatrist and features a group of professional actors and one of the facility's other psychiatrists, Dr. Natalia. When the three fools finally discover the true reason behind the experiment, they want to commit suicide. Dr. Natalia is the only one moved to compassion for them and becomes their accomplice. As we later find out, she suffers from the same disease of the three protagonists, a form of madness that she kept concealed. She convinces them to give up suicide and run away from the institute. Together they will restore joy and lightheartedness in this world without madness.

7:30 PM – 8 :00 PM  -- MAIN EVENT, PART 1

Presentation of the "Integrated Theatre of Emotion" university course and screening of the documentary, "AnItalian Miracle."

The first ever university-level degree in "Integrated Theater of the Emotion" was born in Rome in 2016 thanks to the communal effort of Pathological Theater, the University of Rome Tor Vergata and MIUR (the ItalianMinistry of University and Research). Its objective is to increase and sustain education for those with mental or physical disabilities. The curriculum includes a compendium of theater-related courses: acting, playwriting, directing, set design, costume design, music therapy, singing and dance. Through these studies, disabled students acquire tools to help them approach the professional world and recover an often denied dignity. Thanks to the success of this course, the "Integrated Theater of the Emotion" will also open at the University of Camerino in central Italy in 2017. 

"An Italian Miracle" is a film that documents the work of professors and disabled students of the very first university-level degree in "Integrated Theatre of Emotion." The documentary shows excerpts from the lessons given at the Pathological Theater.  It illustrates techniques of theater therapy that are employed and also transmits the atmosphere and the energy of Dario D'Ambrosi's lifetime of work.

8:00 PM – 8:30 PM -- MAIN EVENT, PART 2

Panel Discussion of the scientific results with:  Laura Coccia (member of Italian Parliament), Prof. Giuseppe Novelli (Dean of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata") and Francesco Serra Di Cassano (journalist and writer).

8:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Italian food served by Serafina Restaurant

9:00 PM – 10:30 PM

Screening of film, "L'Uomo Gallo – Days of Antonio" by Dario D'Ambrosi with Celeste Moratti, Luca Lionello and Dario D'Ambrosi.

In the 1920s, in a poor rural province outside Milan, a mentally handicapped boy with one leg shorter than the other was forced to grow up in a chicken coop, where he emulated the chickens and considered himself a rooster. Ultimately he was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he struggled to build a human life. The film reveals his long and difficult ordeal at the institution, where he encountered a strange and desperate universe of characters, most of them funny and marginalized but with an abundance of humanity. In particular, the film spotlights his intense friendship with his room mate, who was manic about order and cleanliness. The two form a special relationship born of silence and small gestures of solidarity.

Celeste Moratti plays Antonio. Director of Photography is Andrea Locatelli. Art director is Francesco Frigeri, Winner of the David di Donatello in 1999 for "The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean." Costume Designer is Maurizio Millenotti, Oscar-nominated twice for the films "Othello" (1986) and "Hamlet" (1990), both directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Make-up is by Manlio Rocchetti, Oscar winner in 1989 for "Driving Miss Daisy."

ABOUT DARIO D'AMBROSI

Dario D'Ambrosi is a former professional soccer player, one of Italy's leading performance artists and originator of the theatrical movement called Teatro Patologico.  His plays investigate mental illness by grasping its vital artistic and creative aspects with the intention of restoring the "dignity of the fool." 

In the '80s and '90s, D'Ambrosi marched irresistibly into the forefront of Italy's theatrical ambassadors, a cohort led by Pirandello, DiFilippo and Dario Fo. In 1994, he received the equivalent of a Tony Award in his country: a prize for lifetime achievement in the theater from the Instituto del Drama Italiano. D'Ambrosi first performed at La MaMa in 1980 and has been in residence there nearly every year thereafter. He has written and directed over 16 plays, acted in 18 major films and TV movies, and written and directed three full-length films. Fifteen of his plays have had their American premieres at La MaMa. In the US, he has also performed at Lincoln Center, Chicago's Organic Theatre, Cleveland's Public Theater and Los Angeles' Stages Theatre, among others.

American Lyric Theater Announces 2016-2017 Season Featuring Three New Operas in Development

  • The Halloween Tree - Based on the Novel by Ray Bradbury

Music by Theo Popov; Libretto by Tony Asaro

  • The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing

Music by Justine F. Chen; Libretto by David Simpatico

  • Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant

Music by Evan Meier; Libretto by E.M. Lewis

American Lyric Theater (ALT) - founded by Lawrence Edelson in 2005 to build a new body of operatic repertoire by nurturing composers and librettists and providing an incubator for their collaborations - announces its 2016-2017 Season. The season begins with the InsightALT series, providing an insider's look at how new operas are made, featuring concert readings of operas in development at ALT, including The Halloween Tree, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant. The season concludes with the return of the critically acclaimed ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert, celebrating the success of prominent alumni of American Lyric Theater's innovative Composer Librettist Development Program. Tickets are available at www.altnyc.org.

"This season, we are very excited to share three exciting new operas being developed under the auspices of the Composer Librettist Development Program at ALT, as well as to showcase the work of our alumni who are creating new operas for companies across the country," stated Edelson. "These operas range from an adaptation of a classic Ray Bradbury novel for family audiences, to a historical fantasia on one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the 20th Century. We are looking forward to building upon our relationships with Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Concert Hall and MasterVoices for the presentation of our InsightALT series; and to our new partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum to present our Alumni concert in Gilder Lehrman Concert Hall. Through these partnerships, more audiences than ever before will be able to get a glimpse behind the process of creating new operas, and enjoy some of the most exciting new works being written today."

"The essential contemporary opera lab." - The New Yorker 

AMERICAN LYRIC THEATER'S 2016-2017 SEASON: 

  • InsightALT

Presented by American Lyric Theater and Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Concert Hall

The InsightALT series provides an insider's look at how new operas are made. Each event features a concert reading of a new opera in development at American Lyric Theater, with guest singers from the world's leading opera houses, followed by a discussion with the composer and librettist of each work, moderated by ALT's Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Lawrence Edelson.

  • The Halloween Tree

Presented in partnership with MasterVoices

October 30, 2016 at 3pm

Location: Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center - 129 W. 67th Street, New York, NY  

Based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel that explores the origins of Halloween, composer Theo Popov and librettist Tony Asaro take us on an epic journey as a group of children search for their friend Pipkin who has mysteriously disappeared on Halloween night. Conductor: Adam Turner. Featuring: Emma Grimsley, Shirin Eskandani, Brian Wallin, Michael Kelly, and Jarrett Porter with members of MasterVoices.

  • The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing

Presented in partnership with MasterVoices

January 12, 2017 at 7:30pm

Location: Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center - 129 W. 67th Street, New York, NY

With music by Justine F. Chen and libretto by David Simpatico, this opera is a historical-fantasia inspired by the life of the groundbreaking computer scientist, Alan Turing. Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya. Featuring Jonathan Michie as Alan Turing, with Keely Futterer, Elise Quagliata Andrew Bidlack, Jack Swanson,Joseph Beutel and Thomas Shivone, with members of MasterVoices.

  • Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant

March 26, 2017 at 3pm

Location: Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center - 129 W. 67th Street, New York, NY  

A mash-up honoring the classic detective stories of Sherlock Holmes in a romp through a fairy tale world to solve a mystery unlike any Holmes and Watson have encountered before. With a playful libretto by E.M Lewis and mysterious score by Evan Meier, the game's afoot! Conductor: Ari Pelto. Featuring: Sharleen Joynt, Jennifer Black, Steven Eddy, and David Kravitz.

The 2016-2017 season will conclude in April with ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert, presented by American Lyric Theater and The Morgan Library & Museum. This concert celebrates the success of prominent alumni of American Lyric Theater's innovative Composer Librettist Development Program, singers from the country's leading opera houses perform excerpts of recently premiered operas and works in development.

  • ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert

Presented by American Lyric Theater and The Morgan Library & Museum

April 23, 2017 at 3pm

Location: Morgan Library & Museum in the Gilder Lehrman Hall - 225 Madison Ave, New York, NY

Excerpts from JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek*, After the Storm by David Hanlon and Stephanie Fleischmann*, Steal a Pencil for Me by Gerald Cohen* and Deborah Brevoort*, and The Copper Queen by Clint Borzoni* and John de los Santos.(*denotes CLDP alumni)

For more information, please visit:

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College presents Tony Danza: Standards & Stories - 11/20

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2016-17 season on Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 3pm with Emmy-nominated song-and-dance man Tony Danza performing his newest one-man show, Standards & Stories. Accompanied by his talented four-piece band, Brooklyn-born Danza will perform a selection of his favorite standards from the Great American Songbook, including "My Way," "Pennies from Heaven," "I'll be Seeing You," and "It Was a Very Good Year," along with selections from the hit Broadway musical Honeymoon in Vegas (in which Danza starred), while interweaving stories about his life and personal connection to the music.

Tickets are $36-$55 and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

““He exudes the kind of charisma that can’t be taught because it’s part of who he is.””
— The New York Times

About Tony Danza
Best known for starring on some of television's most beloved and long-running series, including Taxi (1978-1983) and Who's the Boss? (1984-1992), Tony Danza has also established himself as a stage and screen star, and has indisputably been one of America's most iconic and beloved performers for over thirty years.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Danza received a wrestling scholarship to the University of Dubuque in Iowa, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history education. Before finding a job teaching, he found himself earning a living as professional boxer. While training in a boxing gymnasium in New York, Danza was "discovered" and ultimately cast in the critically acclaimed ABC series Taxi, earning him a place in television history and making him a household name. He followed Taxi with a starring role in the classic ABC comedy series Who's the Boss?, which ran for eight seasons and broke all syndication records.
Eventually Tony explored his love for the stage, and among his many stage credits is his exciting run on Broadway in Mel Brooks' hit musical The Producers, playing Max Bialystock (2006-2007), and his reprise of the role in the Las Vegas production at Paris Las Vegas (2007). For his theatrical debut in Wrong Turn at Lungfish (1993), he earned an Outer Critic's Circle Award nomination. Other stage credits include the critically acclaimed The Iceman Cometh, opposite Kevin Spacey, Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play A View from the Bridge, and I Remember You.
Most recently, Tony returned to the stage in the hit musical Honeymoon In Vegas, which started at the Paper Mill Playhouse before moving to Broadway. Both the show and Tony's performance received amazing reviews, including a love letter from The New York Times, which compares Tony's performance to "the cooler-than-cool spirit" of Frank Sinatra. 
Tony also recently returned to the big-screen and received great buzz and fantastic reviews for his performance as Joseph Gordon Levitt's father in Levitt's much buzzed and acclaimed directorial debut, Don Jon. The film, which stars Levitt, Danza, Julianne Moore, Brie Larson, and Scarlett Johansson, was released in theaters in the fall of 2013.
Among Tony's previous television experience is his role as attorney Joe Celano on the CBS dramatic series Family Law (2000-2002), his Emmy-nominated performance on David E. Kelley's award-winning series The Practice (1998), and ABC's The Tony Danza Show, a talk show that was broadcast live in New York from 2004-2006. He also starred in and executive-produced the ABC comedy series Hudson Street, NBC's The Tony Danza Show, hosted Saturday Night Live several times and hosted numerous award shows, including the 2001 Miss America Pageant and the 2003 People's Choice Awards. 
Amongst Tony's big-screen credits are his roles in Walt Disney's Angels in the Outfield, She's Out of Control, The Hollywood Knights, and A Brooklyn State of Mind. 
In 2009-2010, Tony took on his most challenging role yet-teaching tenth-grade English at Philadelphia's Northeast High School. His amazing experience working as a real teacher was taped and aired on A&E last year in the form of the critically acclaimed seven-part documentary series, entitled Teach. In September 2012, Crown Publishers (a division of Random House) releases Tony's book, I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High, a much buzzed about and critically acclaimed reflection of his experience teaching for a year. The book premiered on the New York Times Best Sellers list at number 16 and stayed on the list for two months. The paperback edition hit bookstores in September of 2013.
In 2010, AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with more than 35 million readers, presented Tony with their Inspire Award. The Inspire Awards pay tribute to extraordinary people who inspire others to action through their innovative thinking, passion and perseverance. 
In December of 2012, Tony was amongst the iconic celebrities who participated in the Weinstein Company's historic concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden. He was featured in the documentary about the concert, released by the Weinstein Company in the fall of 2013, in which Tony reminds people of the forgotten motto of America, "E pluribus unum," or "out of many one," or as Tony's father would say, "we're all in this together, pal." It's with great belief in the spirit of that motto that Tony participates in many charity efforts.
In April of 2013, USA Today honored Tony at their annual National Make A Difference Day Awards for his commitment to helping others through his numerous charity efforts. 
Tony currently lives in New York City.
Tony Danza: Standards & Stories is part of Brooklyn Center's 2016-17 Con Edison Music Masters Series, which also includes The Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio (Feb 25, 2017 at 8pm), Emeline Michel in concert (Mar 4, 2017 at 8pm), Patti Austin: Happy 100th, Ella! (Apr 22, 2017 at 8pm), and the Yosvany Terry Afro-Cuban Sextet (May 6, 2017 at 8pm).

 

 

Free-for-Everyone Seasonal Kick-off plus Networking Meet-and-Greet By TRU and The Playroom Theater - 9/20

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) and The Playroom Theatre present the September TRU Panel An Introduction to TRU: Free-for-Everyone Seasonal Kick-off plus Networking Meet-and-Greet -Tuesday, September 20,2016 at 7:30pm at The Playroom Theater, 151 W. 46th Street, 8th floor, NYC 10036. Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments; roundtable introductions of everyone in the room will start at 7:30pm.

Meet the program directors and illustrious board members of Theater Resources Unlimited, including director of writer programs Diana Amsterdam (Practical Playwriting), casting director Carly J. Bauer (YPAC leader, co-producer of the TRU Audition), producer/board member Patrick Blake (The 39 Steps, Bedlam Theater's  Hamlet/ St. Joan, Play Dead, The Exonerated, In the Continuum; artistic director Rhymes Over Beats; Practical Playwriting; head of TRU Voices selection committee), TRU literary manager Cate Cammarata (TRU Voices and How to Write a Musical That Works),  actress/writer Christin Cato (co-chair of YPAC), producer/board member David Elliott  (Broadway:  Dames at Sea, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike; off-Broadway: Bedlam Theater's Hamlet/St. Joan, In the Continuum; director of our Producer Development program), attorney Eric Goldman, Esq. (offering free mediation services and counsel to TRU members), Gillien Goll (writer coach for Speed Date and Practical Playwriting), producer Jesse Langston (co-producer of the TRU Audition), producer/co-chair of YPAC Molly Morris (Come from Away, My Life Is a Musical, PopUpTheatrics), producer/board member Tom Polum (The Toxic Avenger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up; How to Write a Musical That Works feedback panel; head of TRU Voices selection committee), producer-actress Jana Robbins (Ragtime, Little Women, Roof of the World; director of our Producer Development program), financial advisor/board member Bailie Slevin (offering free financial consultations to TRU members).
 
Learn about our programs, including our Producer Development & Mentorship Program, the TRU Voices Reading Series, Mediation workshop and other Producer Boot Camps, Speed Dates and Actor Workshops, Writer-Producer Speed Date, Director-Writer Communications Lab, How to Write a Musical That Works workshop and more. Meet our Young Patrons & Artists Circle (YPAC), and learn if you are eligible to join them. Come with questions. And let us know what we don't offer that you wish we did.
 
Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, roundtable introductions of everyone in the room will start at 7:30pm - come prepared with your best one-minute summary of who you are, and what you need. Free for TRU members; usually $12 for non-members, but free for everyone for this season opener. Please call at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail  TRUStaff1@gmail.com.

The Playroom Theater, a small theater with a purpose on West Forty Sixth Street. Created by longtime theatrical producer Eric Krebs, The Playroom Theater features a 62-seat boutique theater, appropriate for rehearsals, readings, auditions, producers' presentations and workshop productions. Conceived of as an artists' workspace for writers, directors, composers, actors, producers and others committed to the professional theater arts and its industry. "The idea of The Playroom has grown out of my desire to create a small and financially manageable space in the heart of the theater district," commented Krebs. "I want this to be a place where industry professionals can pop over for a reading, a backer's audition or a small production of a work in progress." For more information on The Playroom Theater, call Frankie Dailey, General Manager, at 212-967-8278.

Theater Resources Unlimited(TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-four year old 501c3 nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theater companies to emerge healthily and all theater professionals to understand and navigate the business of the arts. Membership includes self-producing artists as well as career producers and theater companies. 

TRU publishes an email community newsletter of services, goods and productions; presents the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and Annual New Musicals Reading Series, two new works series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings to nurture new shows as well as new producers for theater; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. TRU serves writers through a Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as actor workshops. 

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, 9th district Council Member Inez Dickens; and with support from the Montage Foundation and the Friars National Association Foundation. 

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit:

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES THE LINEUP FOR ITS ANNUAL AVANT-GARDE SHOWCASE, PROJECTIONS, AT THE 54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the complete lineup for the Projections section of the 54th New York Film Festival, to take place October 7-9. The slate is comprised of 11 programs presenting an international selection of film and video work that expands upon our notions of what the moving image can do and be. Drawing on a broad range of innovative modes and techniques, including experimental narratives, avant-garde poetics, crossovers into documentary and ethnographic realms, and contemporary art practices, Projections brings together a diverse offering of short, medium, and feature-length work by some of today’s most vital and groundbreaking visual artists.

“With the third edition of Projections, in the belief that artistic radicalism takes many forms, we're casting a wider net than ever,” said Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming and one of the curators of Projections. “This is a section of the festival that we hope reflects the perennially fluid nature of experimental moving-image work, the fascinating and exhilarating ways in which visionary artists are always reinventing the medium to both mirror and shape the historical moment. This may be our most eclectic and energizing lineup yet, juxtaposing major figures of the avant-garde with promising up-and-comers, ranging from abstract short work to feature-length semi-narratives, combining and straddling genres, registers, and generations.”

This year’s lineup features 44 films in 11 programs with 10 world premieres, five North American premieres, and 13 U.S. premieres. Among the highlights are Eduardo Williams’s The Human Surge, winner of the top prize in Locarno’s 2016 Filmmakers of the Present section; world premieres of new work by visual poets Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, the subjects of last year’s NYFF Retrospective; features including Deborah Stratman’s The Illinois Parables and Dane Komljen’s All the Cities of the North; and the U.S. premiere of Há Terra!, directed by 2015 Kazuko Trust Award winner Ana Vaz. This year’s recipient of the Kazuko Award, which recognizes artistic excellence and innovation and is awarded to an emerging filmmaker in the Projections lineup, will be announced in September.

Twenty works will screen on celluloid (15 on 16mm and five on 35mm), including several of this year’s repertory selections: restorations of avant-garde luminary Robert Beavers’s From the Notebook of… (1971/1998) and three historical films by legendary Canadian filmmaker David Rimmer, preserved by the Academy Film Archive, as well as a tribute to the late Peter Hutton with a screening of his In Titan’s Goblet. Projections also features premieres from returning filmmakers Luke Fowler (For Christian), Janie Geiser (Flowers of the Sky), John Smith (Steve Hates Fish), Jesse McLean (See a Dog, Hear a Dog), Kevin Jerome Everson (Ears, Nose and Throat), Tomonari Nishikawa (Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon), and many more; the NYFF debuts of acclaimed visual artists Mark Leckey (Dream English Kid, 1964–1999 AD), Rosalind Nashashibi (Electrical Gaza), Steve Reinke (A Boy Needs a Friend), Lawrence Lek (Europa, Mon Amour), Clemens von Wedemeyer (The Horses of a Cavalry Captain), Rosa Barba (Bending to Earth), and Stephen Sutcliffe (Twixt Cup and Lip); and a few Film Society of Lincoln Center alums new to Projections—James N. Kienitz Wilkins (Indefinite Pitch), who was in last year’s NYFF New York shorts program, and filmmakers Komljen and Williams, whose work has screened in the Film Society’s Art of the Real festival.

This year, the NYFF is proud to continue its collaboration with the curated video-on-demand service MUBI, a platform that showcases the best international, classic, and award-winning films from around the globe. MUBI will be a dedicated sponsor of the Projections section for the second consecutive year. Several titles from past Projections lineups will be made available on MUBI leading up to the festival, and a selection from the 2016 program will be featured upon completion of the festival. Details on the films and schedule will be announced at a later date.

Projections is curated by Dennis Lim (FSLC Director of Programming) and Aily Nash (independent curator). Thomas Beard (FSLC Programmer at Large) serves as Program Advisor. The curators wish to thank Colin Beckett, Shelby Shaw, Edo Choi, Maxwell Paparella, Mark Toscano, Gonzalo de Pedro Amatria, and the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Projections tickets are $15 for General Public and $10 for Members & Students. A $99 Projections All Access Pass will also be available for purchase. Visit filmlinc.org/NYFF for more information.

Tickets for the 54th New York Film Festival will go on sale September 11. Becoming a Film Society Member at the Film Buff Level or above provides early ticket access to festival screenings and events ahead of the general public, along with the exclusive member ticket discount. Learn more at filmlinc.org/membership.

For even more access, VIP passes and subscription packages offer the earliest opportunities to purchase tickets and secure seats at some of the festival's biggest events including Opening and Closing Nights, and Centerpiece. VIP passes also provide access to many exciting events, including the invitation-only Opening Night party, “An Evening With…” dinner, Filmmaker Brunch, and VIP Lounge. Benefits vary based on the pass or package type purchased. VIP passes and subscription packages are on sale now. Learn more at filmlinc.org/NYFF.

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen digitally at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 W. 65th St.) unless otherwise noted.

Program 1: THE SPACES BETWEEN THE WORDS
Friday, October 7, 4:00pm
Saturday, October 8, 3:00pm
TRT: 81m

REGAL
Karissa Hahn, USA, 2015, 16mm, 2m
An old Regal Cinemas pre-show animation is further degraded as it’s run through a ringer of format transfers, each layer representing a different viewing space.

Steve Hates Fish
John Smith, UK, 2015, 5m
Recorded from a smartphone screen, its translation app running on the wrong settings and struggling to interpret North London street signs in French and convert them to English, Steve Hates Fish turns errors into unintentional poetry.

Real Italian Pizza
David Rimmer, Canada, 1971, 16mm, 13m
Scenes outside a Manhattan pizza joint, shot over eight months from a fourth-floor apartment window. Men stand eating their slices and drinking their sodas alone; groups of friends and neighborhood acquaintances, mostly black, hang out, talking and laughing; a few cops, all white, march a man away in handcuffs; summer turns to winter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Now: End of Season
Ayman Nahle, Lebanon, 2015, 20m
U.S. Premiere
In the cosmopolitan Turkish city of Izmir, thousands of Syrians fleeing Assad, ISIS, and the proxy forces lined up behind them, bide their time, waiting to cross the Aegean Sea. On the soundtrack, voices from a previous war.

See a Dog, Hear a Dog
Jesse McLean, USA, 2016, 18m
World Premiere
This tragicomic analysis of communication between humans, animals, and machines was made with original video footage, computer animations, and internet media, including YouTube dog videos, chatbot dialogue windows, and images from iTunes visualizer.

Twixt Cup and Lip
Stephen Sutcliffe, UK, 2016, 23m
World Premiere
This sound and video collage, produced in conjunction with a museum exhibit about Yorkshire playwright and novelist David Storey, draws from BBC outtakes, Edwardian-nostalgic commercial design, and other sources of mid-century British middlebrow to consider the vagaries of class mobility.

Program 2: BEYOND LANDSCAPE
Friday, October 7, 6:30pm
Saturday, October 8, 5:15pm
TRT: 78m

Burning Mountains That Spew Flame / Montañas Ardientes Que Vomitan Fuego
Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado, Spain, 2016, 14m
U.S. Premiere
Scientific claims made by 17th-century Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher and political ones made by the Invisible Committee are examined in this journey into the volcanoes of Lanzarote.

Bending to Earth
Rosa Barba, USA/Germany, 2015, 35mm, 15m
Helicopter shots circle variously colored shapes carved into desert landscapes. We discover these manmade inscriptions are storage cells for radioactive material designed to eventually return to the soil.

Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon
Tomonari Nishikawa, Japan, 2016, 16mm, 10m
U.S. Premiere
Delivering exactly what his title promises—but not necessarily in the order you’d expect—Nishikawa presents 20 sequences shot along Japan’s Yahagi River; images tautly suspended between stillness and movement, darkness and light.

Canadian Pacific I
David Rimmer, Canada, 1974, 16mm, 9m
Scenes taken from a single, second-floor view of Vancouver Harbor, recorded over three winter months, pieced together with subtle dissolves so as to resemble one ten-minute shot. “Its formalism is very unimposing,” wrote Jonas Mekas, “like in a Hudson School painting.”  

Jáaji Approx.
Sky Hopinka, USA, 2015, 8m
Hopkina’s video address to his father is made of landscape images saturated with dark shadow and dreamy light, and features his father’s own words taken from recordings of Hočak language songs and chants.

Bad Mama, Who Cares
Brigid McCaffrey, USA, 2016, 35mm, 12m
World Premiere
Geologist Ren Lallatin inhabits different spaces—of brilliant snow and blazing sun, rundown towns and little-trodden deserts—in this structural-lyrical landscape film shot on richly tinted film.

Ears, Nose and Throat
Kevin Jerome Everson, USA, 2016, 10m
Everson returns to his hometown of Mansfield, Ohio, in this unblinking look at the simultaneity of the tragic and the mundane in black American life. The subject is the 2010 murder of 25-year-old DeCarrio Couley, who appeared in a number of Everson’s earlier films.

Program 3: THE ILLINOIS PARABLES
Friday, October 7, 8:45pm
TRT: 70m

The Illinois Parables
Deborah Stratman, USA, 2016, 16mm, 60m
Eleven episodes from the history of Illinois stand in for the United States at large. Working in her essayistic, political mode, Deborah Stratman synthesizes an array of materials into a rigorous yet playful consideration of the catastrophe of the state and the resilience of those who make up the nation.

Preceded by
The Horses of a Cavalry Captain / Die Pferde des Rittmeisters
Clemens von Wedemeyer, Germany, 2015, 10m
North American Premiere
During World War II, Wehrmacht captain Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch traveled in advance of the army scouting for barracks. An amateur cinematographer, he also made 16mm images behind the front. Part of a larger project, Die pferde des Rittmeisters, made by Vietinghoff-Riesch’s grandson, presents footage of the cavalry horses, the artist’s commentary never letting us forget that these attractive creatures were also Nazi machines.

Program 4: FADE OUT
Saturday, October 8, 2:00pm
Saturday, October 8, 7:30pm
TRT: 76m

Old Hat
Zach Iannazzi, USA, 2016, 16mm, 8m
A scrapbook of 16mm images made on the fly, the length of each determined by the position of the Bolex spring when the shot begins. Some shove past as quickly as slides in a carousel advanced at top speed; others—etching the explosive ascent of fireworks in high-contrast white, or the arc of the setting sun on the mirrored glass of an office tower—linger.

Flowers of the Sky
Janie Geiser, USA, 2016, 9m
U.S. Premiere
Named after a medieval term for comets, Flowers of the Sky finds a seemingly infinite number of ways of looking at and into two mid-century postcards depicting the Freemasonic Order of the Eastern Star, using a macro lens and a variety of printing and masking techniques.

Answer Print
Mónica Savirón, USA, 2016, 16mm, 5m
World Premiere
Answer Print is assembled with pieces of deteriorating 16mm color stock. Not only the images themselves but also the world that produced them and which they reproduce—here suspended in the red aspic of faded color dye—threatens to disappear.

Athyrium filix-femina (for Anna Atkins)
Kelly Egan, Canada, 2016, 35mm, 5m
World Premiere
This homage to botanist and photography pioneer Anna Atkins was made in cyanotype photograms and reanimated film stills on stock exposed in the sun. Handcrafted with historically domestic, feminine tools, it’s structured as a narrative in quilting patterns.

Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper
David Rimmer, Canada, 1970, 16mm, 9m
This classic work of Canadian structural cinema consists of an eight-second shot of a woman in a factory unrolling a spool of cellophane in sheets, which crash like waves toward the camera. Rimmer loops the image, replaying it in segments that give it different visual and aural treatments. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Ghost Children
Joao Vieira Torres, Brazil/France, 2016, 17m
North American Premiere
Ghost Children presents seven reminiscences of early childhood, read in seven different voices, as the camera presses close against the faded dye and exaggerated grain of family photographs from the early 1980s. The film encourages the audience to interrogate assumptions about gender, memory, performance, and death.

Cilaos
Camilo Restrepo, France, 2016, 13m
U.S. Premiere
A woman takes her mother’s dying wish to the father she never knew; he is dead but not gone from the Réunion Islands village of Cilaos, historically a Maroon community. With the collaboration of renowned singer Christine Salem, Restrepo develops a trans-diasporic narrative form built on the slave rhythms of Réunionese maloya and Colombian mapalé.
 
Luna e Santur
Joshua Gen Solondz, USA, 2016, 35mm, 11m
U.S. Premiere
Mingling sex and death with the supernatural and subnaturalistic, this visually assaultive threnody alternates white hot light with furious streaks of cruddy black goop, pushing the eye and the ego to their breaking points.

Program 5: SITE AND SOUND
Saturday, October 8, 4:15pm
Sunday, October 9, 12:30pm
TRT: 84m

Indefinite Pitch
James N. Kienitz Wilkins, USA, 2016, 23m
A procession of black and silvery white stills of New England’s Androscoggin River unspools alongside an anxious monologue on movies, memory, and minor history.

Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition)
Lawrence Lek, UK, 2016, 14m
North American Premiere
This guided, two-part meditation on Brexit unfolds in a computer-simulated hallucination of the London district of Dalston, a place with no people but filled with drones and fires.

Strange Vision of Seeing Things
Ryan Ferko, Canada/Serbia, 2016, 14m
U.S. Premiere
Time-spaces of post-Yugoslav Serbia: the empty lobby of a defunct industrial conglomerate’s headquarters in Belgrade; an unseen man describing tripping on acid during the 1999 NATO bombings; a mother and her young son visit ruins left by that same campaign. At first they appear in crisp HD, but cracks form, revealing dimensions beneath the smooth surface.

Foyer
Ismaïl Bahri, France/Tunisia, 2016, 32m
U.S. Premiere
A white haze flutters on-screen, accompanied by street sounds in Tunis. Indistinct shapes appear as passersby engage the cameraman about his project and their lives. He tells one of them, “The wind does the editing.”

Program 6: ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH
Saturday, October 8, 6:45pm

All the Cities of the North / Svi severni gradovi
Dane Komljen, Serbia/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Montenegro, 2016, 100m
North American Premiere
In the darkly wooded grounds and concrete boxes of what was once a Yugoslav resort complex, two men share an enigmatic, tender life. A stranger comes to town; things change, but how, what, and why remain ambiguous. In Komljen’s richly suggestive, quietly moving elegy to lost utopias, no words are exchanged, and speech only comes in monologues, taking up questions on the architecture and administration of human sociality. 

Program 7: POP CULTURE CLASH
Saturday, October 8, 9:30pm
Sunday, October 9, 3:00pm
TRT: 63m

A Boy Needs a Friend
Steve Reinke, USA, 2015, 22m
This latest installment of Final Thoughts, the series of unreliably narrated queer video essays that Reinke intends to continue until his death, takes love and friendship as its main subjects. Onto this he latches a long chain of endless digressions, which include, among much else, Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates, the pleasures of needlepoint, and the design of an anal tattoo.

Spotlight on a Brick Wall
Alee Peoples and Mike Stoltz, USA, 2016, 16mm, 8m
An abstracted nightclub performance, its constituent parts—stand-up comedy, a capella, a laconic bass-and-drum rock duo, a slapstick mime—wrenched apart and recombined.

Return to Forms
Zachary Epcar, USA, 2016, 10m
World Premiere
The surfaces and shapes of typical international contempo yuppie style are defamiliarized, staged in and around a condo in an unnamed urban environment.

Dream English Kid, 1964–1999 AD
Mark Leckey, UK, 2015, 16mm, 23m
North American Premiere
Dream English Kid traces the cultural developments in the life of a working-class English boy, between the start of the Nuclear Test Ban and Azzido Da Bass’s first EP, as a collage of images and sounds, locating the broadly shared within the idiosyncratic and personal.

Program 8: DORSKY AND HILER
Sunday, October 9, 1:00pm
Sunday, October 9, 5:00pm
TRT: 65m

Autumn
Nathaniel Dorsky, USA, 2016, 16mm, 26m
World Premiere
“Autumn, photographed during the last months of the drought year, 2015, is a stately, but intimate, seasonal tome, a celebration of the poignancy and mystery of our later years.” —Nathaniel Dorsky

The Dreamer
Nathaniel Dorsky, USA, 2016, 16mm, 19m
World Premiere
“This year our midsummer’s night was adorned with a glorious full moon. The weeks and days preceding the solstice were magically alive with crisp, cool breezes, bright warm sunlight, and a general sense of heartbreaking clarity. The Dreamer is born out of this most poignant San Francisco spring.” —Nathaniel Dorsky

Bagatelle II
Jerome Hiler, USA, 2016, 16mm, 20m
World Premiere
“With Bagatelle II, I seem to have come full circle by returning to the so-called polyvalent style of my earliest film endeavors from 50 years ago. The film actually includes material from all the intervening decades. It's both up to the moment yet life-spanning, with a thread of deep affection for the special characteristics of 16mm film.” —Jerome Hiler

Program 9: EVENT HORIZONS
Sunday, October 9, 3:15pm
Sunday, October 9, 7:00pm
TRT: 81m

Há Terra!
Ana Vaz, Brazil/France, 2016, 13m
U.S. Premiere
The camera jerks quickly across a field in the Brazilian Sertão, homing in on a young Maroon woman crouching in the tall grass. A hand feels around in the brush, caressing the earth. From these two images, Ana Vaz’s film proceeds on tracks that neither fully merge nor completely diverge, expressing the incommensurability of filmmaker and subject.

Kindah
Ephraim Asili, USA/Jamaica, 2016, 12m
World Premiere
Shot between the Maroon village of Accompong, Jamaica, and Hudson, New York, the alternately sparse and exultantly polyrhythmic Kindah is part of a series of films examining the filmmaker's relationship to the African diaspora. The title alludes to the mango tree that symbolizes common kinship in the Jamaican Maroon culture.

In Titan’s Goblet
Peter Hutton, USA, 1991, 16mm, 9m
Titled after a painting by Thomas Cole, this work of Hudson River School landscape filmmaking by the late Peter Hutton is a study of ships and smoke on the water.

An Aviation Field / Um Campo de Aviação
Joana Pimenta, Portugal/USA/Brazil, 2016, 13m
U.S. Premiere
Using warm, darkly saturated 16mm images shot on the volcanic island of Fogo, Cape Verde, and in modernist Brasilia, and sounds that range between trebly crackle and aquatic gurgle, Pimenta constructs a surreal and mythical landscape from the remnants of Portuguese colonialism.

Electrical Gaza
Rosalind Nashashibi, UK, 2015, 18m
Commissioned by London’s Imperial War Museum, Electrical Gaza combines vérité documentary scenes of public life in Gaza shot by Nashashibi in 2014, portraits of her crew, and uncanny, painterly computer animations modeled from the footage, rendering it unreal—as the Israeli government would claim and Palestinians would like to make it. 

Event Horizon
Guillermo Moncayo, France, 2015, 16m
A story modeled on 19th-century ethnography and colonialist travel literature unfolds in titles written in a mythological register. Lush images and sounds accrue a level of detail that refuses knowledge and courts being.

Program 10: FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF . . .
Sunday, October 9, 5:30pm
TRT: 55m

From the Notebook of…
Robert Beavers, Italy/Switzerland, 1971/1998, 35mm, 48m
North American Restoration Premiere
An essential film by one of cinema’s living masters, forged from the brilliant light of Florence streets and the shadow of an old pensionne, this astounding work of public science and private experience was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks. According to P. Adams Sitney, this is “the first film of [Beavers’] artistic maturity.”

Preceded by
For Christian
Luke Fowler, UK/USA, 2016, 16mm, 7m
Fowler’s portrait of New York School composer Christian Wolff continues his investigation into the legacies of 20th-century avant-garde music. Short, handheld shots taken at Wolff’s New Hampshire farm are assembled in diagonal relation to a soundtrack that features snippets of conversation with Wolff and passages from his compositions.

Program 11: THE HUMAN SURGE
Sunday, October 9, 7:30pm
TRT: 97m

The Human Surge / El auge del humano
Eduardo Williams, Argentina/Brazil/Portugal, 2016, 97m
U.S. Premiere
A twenty-something in Argentina loses his warehouse job. Boys in Maputo, Mozambique, perform half-hearted sex acts in front of a webcam. A woman in the Philippines assembles electronics in a small factory. Williams’s inquisitive camera is in constant motion, as are his rootless characters, who wander aimlessly, make small talk, futz with their phones, and search for a working Internet connection. Unfolding within the unfree time between casual jobs, this wildly original rumination on labor and leisure in the global digital economy seems to take place in both the immediate present and the far horizon of the foreseeable future. Winner of the top prize in the 2016 Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section.

For more information about the New York Film Festival, visit filmlinc.org/NYFF.

"FOLLOW YOUR HEART", ADVICE FROM TONY AWARD WINNER — Daveed Diggs

On Sunday, June 19, Fathers’ Day, hearts will be especially heavy as the world reflects on the 49 victims who lost their lives in Orlando, Florida, as victims of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

It was just a week ago Sunday when the theatrical community, poised to celebrate the 2016 Tony Awards in NYC, felt the impact of the tragedy. In quick response, nominees and presenters wore silver ribbons — designed by veteran Broadway costume designer and six-time Tony winner William Ivey Long — to honor the victims.

As difficult for the heart to absorb so many deaths, it’s further exacerbated because many of those who died there, were Hispanic and African-American young people, many at the beginning of their lives. A particularly poignant fact to ponder in Broadway history, is that 2016 will be seen, as a historic and important year for the African and African-American artistic community given that all four awards for Performances in Musicals went to African-American actors. 

“Hamilton,” the hip-hop musical about America’s first Treasury secretary, won 11 Tony Awards including picking up Broadway’s highest honor — the Tony for Best Musical.  Proving that the art form of hip-hop is successful not only artistically, but commercially — it was earning about $6000,00 in profit weekly on Broadway — and is poised to expand its reach with productions opening in Chicago in September, followed by two North American tours and a London staging as well.  

The lingering weight of the tragedy made many reflect on the value of time and the importance of family. Among those pondering such matters was Daveed Diggs, who plays both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in “Hamilton.” He was one of those cast members who took a Tony home — in his case, for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

In Act I, of “Hamilton,” Diggs brings the thunder, commanding the stage first as Lafayette.  According to the website FiveThirtyEight, which uses statistical analysis — hard numbers — to tell compelling stories about elections, politics, sports, science, economics, etc., he drops the fastest rap in Broadway history, with the song “Guns and Ships” clocking in at a dizzying 19 words in three seconds.  

Then in Act 2, he shakes out his mane of hair, undoing his man-bun and turns into the complex Jefferson, who he paints with big strokes of braggadocio as well as ladening on a dash of entitled-dandy charm. A cool, confident ghost of history and a master adversary to Miranda’s Hamilton.  The result is a hyped cabinet rap battle that brings audiences to their feet.

 

For Diggs, becoming a part of “Hamilton” — which marked his Broadway debut — was a stroke of pure “luck.”

 Born and raised in Oakland, California, the son of a white, Jewish mother and an African-American father, Diggs honed his musical skills with the experimental Cali-based hip hop group CLIPPING.

A family focused artist, Diggs shared words of wisdom on the importance of following your dreams. “It’s important, and always has been, to my parents that I do something that I love. [I} watched his father report to a job he hated, as bus driver in San Franscico,, [and it] helped frame his hearts’ ambition.” 

Diggs added that the success of “Hamilton” and his Tony win is dedicated to his parents.

Here is what the Tony winner had to say about his father on Tony night. 

[On getting Tony win in contrast to the Orlando tragedy]

In the middle of all this thing, for me, it makes perfect sense in the mist of this performance [that] I get represent my actual self while telling this story, and I think that’s why Hamilton is so inclusive. We get to see our actual selves in this story about the founding of the country we all live and participate in. 

[On sharing the news of his win with his family]

I tell me my dad and my grandfather too, I call him [grandfather] on the phone, too, he says some real slick stuff. They are supportive.

I’ve always aspired to be my father. I always have, and I am not… We are sort of fundamentally different, in a lot of ways, but I try him on from time to time.  

I made this outfit [that I am wearing]. I feel great in this, because this is some stuff my dad would have worn when he was younger, and he looks so much better than me tonight — it’s ridiculous.  

And it’s not just his style, but that’s the way that I get to play it. But it’s really the kind of man he is, and the kind of person he is who exudes the love that he does; and so getting to play a role where I get to take these things that I learned, from just trying to walk around, like my dad walks around — it’s great!  

[Playing this historical role] of Thomas Jefferson — come on, there is no way that this should be ‘real’ — reading lines written for Thomas Jefferson — [and] I am like, “Yes, that’s my father,” except, maybe, that’s way too real.

It’s been so great. It’s been so much fun.  It’s one of the great things about this process is how much of ourselves we were asked to bring to it and how much sense it kept making to do that. 

My family is through all of this work and that’s great because I am so far away from them, right now. So iIt’s nice to carry them with me, all of them, it’s nice to feel that.

NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY: World Premiere of First Touch to be performed at NJPAC on Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm

The critically-acclaimed Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center(NJPAC) on Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm. The dances of choreographer Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the elegant splendor of Asian art. Enjoy a full evening of her work which The New York Times calls "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy." An extraordinary cast of dancers and musicians takes you on a fantastic journey that blossoms with color, energy, and motion. NJPAC audiences have experienced the Chinese Lunar New Year spectacles that Nai-Ni Chen produces each year and have witnessed the power and grace of her work alongside traditional dances. This summer performance is a presentation not to be missed!

NJPAC is located at 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Tickets are $20-$50 and can be purchased at http://www.njpac.org/events/detail/nai-ni-chen-dance-company-1

The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the elegant splendor of Asian art. Enjoy a full evening of her stunning choreography, which The New York Times calls "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy." An extraordinary cast of dancers and musicians takes you on a fantastic journey that blossoms with color, energy and motion.

LABAlive Presents BEAUTY / BOUNDARIES at The Theater at the 14th Street Y June 2, 2016 at 7:30pm

LABAlive presents BEAUTY / BOUNDARIES on June 2, 2016 at 7:30pm at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E. 14th Street, New York, NY.

Crossing boundaries alters our perceptions, including our perception of beauty. Experience three new multi-disciplinary works-in-process and the teachings of the ancient text that inspired them, created by LABA Fellows Lainie Fefferman, Lital Dotan, and Shanti Grumbine and partnered with a teaching from Reuben Namdar.

Tickets are $20, and can be purchased at www.labajournal.com/boundaries or by calling 646-395-4310. A wine and cheese reception is included. 

Lital Dotan / Second Floor

"Second Floor" is an immersive theater piece about an ambitious performance artist constantly testing the boundaries of her art. A violent interruption causes the line between reality and performance to become blurred.  

Lainie Fefferman / Market Day

"Market Day," a graphic novel by James Strum about a visionary rug maker in turn-of-the-century Europe whose handiwork is no longer valued in a post-industrialized world. The book comes to life in an animated film and an original score by Fefferman for the JACK String Quartet.

Shanti Grumbine / The Last Color: A Reliquary

What happens when a community is so inundated with information that they lose language completely? The Last Color: A Reliquary is a multi-disciplinary project that investigates the effects of information overload on contemporary culture.

"The work denotes a point of communication breakdown in the media and holds us there while she transforms it. Grumbine alchemically shifts everyday media into an ethereal realm of mind and soul...."

- Sarah Walko, Hyperallergic

To know more about LABA fellows, read more at:

NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY: World Premiere of First Touch to be performed at NJPAC on Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm

The program of five dances to showcase the diversity of choreographer Nai-Ni Chen's inspiration.

The critically-acclaimed Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center(NJPAC) on Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm. The dances of choreographer Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the elegant splendor of Asian art. Enjoy a full evening of her work which The New York Times calls "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy." An extraordinary cast of dancers and musicians takes you on a fantastic journey that blossoms with color, energy, and motion. NJPAC audiences have experienced the Chinese Lunar New Year spectacles that Nai-Ni Chen produces each year and have witnessed the power and grace of her work alongside traditional dances. This summer performance is a presentation not to be missed!

NJPAC is located at 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Tickets are $20-$50 and can be purchased at http://www.njpac.org/events/detail/nai-ni-chen-dance-company-1 

About The Nai-Ni Chen Program at NJPAC 

The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the elegant splendor of Asian art. Enjoy a full evening of her stunning choreography, which The New York Times calls "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy." An extraordinary cast of dancers and musicians takes you on a fantastic journey that blossoms with color, energy and motion.

From her own cultural journey as a Chinese immigrant in America, Nai-Ni Chen created Calligrafitti with noted composer Huang Ruo - a new piece which links the graceful, elegant lines of Chinese calligraphic art with the grit and rebellious freedom of American graffiti. According to Ink Painting Today "Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time and rhythm in shifting space its main ingredients.". By this definition, calligraphy reflects Nai-Ni Chen's own background in Chinese dance, Peking Opera, and Chinese martial art. On the other hand, graffiti was born out of thirst for expression in the urban environment. For Nai-Ni, it reflects her immigration to America: her search for a sense of freedom as an 18-year-old performer first visiting New York City. Calligrafitti - will be performed with live music by the New Asia Chamber Music Society.

Mirage (2009) further showcases Nai-Ni Chen's unique integration of Chinese philosophy and art into her work. Mirage originates from her journey to the Silk Road and integrates the essence of sculptures and paintings found within ancient Buddhist caves and the ecstatic rhythm and shifting motions of the Uyghur culture.

WORLD PREMIERE: First Touch, a new piece that will have its world premiere at this concert, is a sensuous, physical duet that examines the human primal desire to connect. 

Movable Figures, commissioned in 1999 for the Morningside Dance Festival, celebrates the art of Chinese puppetry and the singular polyrhythmic sound of the accompanying instruments. In this dance, Nai-Ni Chen recreates the sense of wonderment she felt when she first encountered the art-form.

Undercurrent is a new work and collaboration with Rutgers University Professor Jerry Chenoweth whose cello solo inspired Nai-Ni Chen to wonder how a woman finds freedom in a world dominated by men. This quartet explores the enduring inner strength that supports the surges of passion throughout our lives. Undercurrent will be performed with live music by the prize-winning cellist Nan-Cheng Chen.

These works are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Music USA, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner of the National Endowment for the Arts, Department of the State.

ABOUT NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY

The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art. The Company's productions take the audience beyond cultural boundaries to where tradition meets innovation and freedom arises from discipline. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a vital resource of culture in the eastern United States. Each year, thousands of audiences are transported beyond cultural boundaries to the common ground between tradition and innovation, discipline and freedom, and form and spirit. According to The New York Times, they "...essentially recreated nature..."

Choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen is an artist whose work defies categorization, as she is continually working on new ideas from influences around the world. Her mesmerizing and dramatic contemporary choreography has gained increasing recognition among domestic and international presenters and festivals. Recently, the Company was honored by a distinctive grant award from both the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities and the Department of State to represent the United States in a seven-city tour arranged by the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival in Mexico.

Presented by some of the most prestigious concert halls in the United States, from the Joyce Theater in New York to the Ordway Center in Minnesota and the Cerritos Center in California, the Company has mounted twenty national tours and seven tours abroad.  Ms. Chen's work has been presented by such acclaimed international festivals as the Silesian International Contemporary Dance Festival and the Konfrontations International Dance Festival, both in Poland, the Chang Mu International Arts Festival in Korea and the China International Dance Festival.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company also has the unique honor of having received more than fifteen awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In the First China International Dance Festival in Kunming, Yunan, the China Dance Association presented to the Company its most prestigious honor for companies not based in China, the Golden Lotus Award.

The Company's commissioned dances include American Landscape (New Jersey Performing Arts Center), Peach Flower Landscape (Lincoln Center Institute), Qian Kun (Joyce Theater),Tianji/Dragons on the Wall (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust), The Way of Five (Towson University) and Unfolding (Dancing in the Streets).

ABOUT NJPAC


New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in downtown Newark, New Jersey, is among the largest performing arts centers in the United States and is the artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey - where great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day. NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and showcasing the state's and the world's best artists while acting as a leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through its extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted more than 10 million visitors (including over 1.5 million children) since opening its doors in 1997, and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of its constituents. NJPAC is a proud partner of Newark Celebration 350. 

BROADWAY & THEATER MINI-REVIEW ~ TONY2016 NOMINEE MUSINGS!

Lapacazo, What Do You Know? I know about the theater Here is a mini review to help you make good theater decisions.

African-Americans and all people of color and diversity, also attend theater and purchase tickets on Broadway for a myriad of shows. We are, God Bless Our Collective Souls, a curious people and capable of indescribable depths of empathy. The lives of quirky, challenged characters, that are the fabric of the very best theater is something — dare I say — we understand instinctively. Toss in good music and we become the backbone of a loyal following that can make or break a project.

Here is a mini review of recent Broadway shows and I am going to use my “Harlem Rating:” four $ signs = great.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (3 Tony nominations) $$$$

This well reviewed revived musical comedy (1964) is powerful and honors the ebullience of the human spirit, as embodied by the lead character, Tevye, living in a Russian shtetl in the early 20th, and played by Danny Burstein, a Broadway veteran and five-time Tony nominee. He’s so good in the role that it made my knees buckle. Choreographer, Hofesh Shechter, nominated for a Tony this year, demonstrated that dance is an essential part of storytelling.

ECLIPSED (6 Tony nominations) $$$$

Danai Gurira wrote this soul searching and unflinching peek into the lives of women, caught in the brutal violence of Liberian civil war. It’s perfect. Under the careful hands of Tony nominated director, Liesl Tommy, a native of South Africa and the first African/African-American woman to be nominated for a Tony Award, demonstrates that as a storyteller, Tommy is born to her profession.

THE COLOR PURPLE (4 Tony nominations) $$$$

Hallelujah, seems the right word to encompass this stripped down version of the musical, based on the novel written by Alice Walker. In a tweet [quote] Lin-Manuel Miranda said that he “went to church” after watching a matinee performance. The heart-pounding gospel-atomic powered musical is making Tony nominated Cynthia Erivo, a new star and giving theater credibility to Danielle Brooks, nominated for a Tony award, under “featured in a musical category.”

ON YOUR FEET! THE STORY OF EMILO and GLORIA ESTEFAN (1 Tony nomination) $$$

The music of the Estefefan empire and the performances of Ana Villafañe (as Ms. Estefan) and Josh Segarra (Emilo) make this a must see. Under Tony nominated choreographer, Sergio Trujillo, the sizzling dance numbers bring audiences to their feet. The strong ensemble of dancers include Luis Salgado who also acts as dance captain for this vibrant production.

At the meet the Tony nominees event this “birdy heard”: :

Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) : “Hamilton reflects a huge part of our culture, our story, our people and it connects to the truth and they understand.” Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) is nominated for best performance by an actor in a musical for playing two roles—Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson: “Lafayette, has no problem breaking the 4th wall. I come out blowing kisses and waving to the audience. While playing Jefferson that does not happen. He is aware of everything and is just waiting for a moment to connect.“

Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed) highlighted that the original musical, Shuffle Along, which debuted in 1921, was ground breaking: “It was the first musical with a jazz score among other firsts. That includes launching the careers of Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, and Florence Mills who became the biggest entertainment star — white or black — at the time. There are many milestones that Shuffle Along created that no one really knows anything about, yet.”

Eclipsed producers Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey, the only lead African-American producers on Broadway, the six time nominated play is making history again with the nomination for South African born director, Liesl Tommy: “Liesl Tommy is the first woman of color to be nominated in the category of best direction for a play. There has only been three female Broadway directors—ever—and our company has debuted two of them: Debbie Allen with “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” and now, Tony nominee, Liesl Tommy.”

www.tonyawards.com - June 12th on CBS

RIOULT Dance NY presents Two Programs World Premiere of Cassandra's Curse NYC Premiere of Polymorphous The Joyce Theater

RIOULT Dance NY, a leading American modern dance company with a classic sensibility, returns to The Joyce Theater from June 21-26, 2016 with eight performances featuring World and New York City Premieres. Tickets start at $10 and are on sale now at www.joyce.org. 

An established name in modern dance with a reputation for performing sensual, articulate, and exquisitely musical works, RIOULT Dance NY performs two programs. WOMEN ON THE EDGE examines the role of women in times of conflict and features the World Premiere of Cassandra's Curse, set to live music. The second program is distinguished by the New York City premiere of Polymorphous, a piece exploring the subjectivity of perception through movement and technology; Duets, a suite of magnificent duets drawn from some of Pascal Rioult's finest dances; and two repertory works.

Special events during the company's Joyce Theater engagement include a Family Matinee on Saturday, June 25 with $10 tickets available for children aged 6-14; a Curtain Chat following the Thursday, June 23 performance with members of the company, as well as a gala immediately following the performance on June 22 at Studio 450, 450 W. 31st Street, NYC.  Call 212-398-5901 for gala tickets.

RIOULT Dance NY Season at The Joyce Theater - June 21-26, 2016

PROGRAM A: WOMEN ON THE EDGE...Unsung Heroines of the Trojan War

Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30pm; Thursday, June 23* & Saturday, June 25 at 8pm; Sunday, June 26 at 7:30pm

*Stay with us for a post-performance Curtain Chat after the curtain goes down on Thursday, June 23.

Iphigenia (2013)

Iphigenia is a dance drama chronicling a young woman's transfiguration from innocent child to transcendental heroine. Based on Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, it focuses on King Agamemnon's decision to sacrifice his daughter - much to the horror of his wife, Clytemnestra, and his daughter's betrothed, Achilles - and Iphigenia's ultimate acceptance of her fate. Through dramatic dance scenes woven together with a recurring ensemble-the Greek chorus, the part-narrative, part-abstract piece unfolds, reintroducing audiences to this beautifully tragic story.

On Distant Shores (2011)

On Distant Shores...A Redemption Fantasy evokes the ancient myth of Helen of Troy. "I always thought Helen got a bad rap," says Pascal Rioult. In this work he sets out to redeem her, imagining she is brought to Troy against her will, where she encounters four god-like warriors. 

Cassandra's Curse (World Premiere)

The world premiere of Pascal's new work, Cassandra's Curse, is set to a commissioned score by acclaimed composer Richard Danielpour and will premiere with live music. Loosely based on Euripides' The Trojan Women, this dance reveals the character of Cassandra, whose gift of prophecy allows her to foresee the unfortunate fate of Troy, though not a soul believes her.  Her curse is a metaphor for a society's tendencies to ignore the voice of reason and to repeat its history of war and violence.

Cassandra's Curse is co-commissioned by ADF with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Dance and created in part with the support from the Made in Wickenburg Residency program with funding from the R. H. Johnson Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, WESTAF, and the Wellik Foundation.

Program B

Wednesday, June 22 at 7pm*; Friday, June 24 at 8pm; Saturday, June 25 & Sunday, June 26 at 2pm

*Gala immediately following this performance at Studio 450.  

Dream Suite (2014)

Dream Suite is a contemporary take on romanticism. The contrasting mood of Tchaikovsky's "Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C Major" is juxtaposed with more aggressive, rhythmic and athletic movement. With a palette inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall, this thoroughly contemporary work delves into the surreal as it evolves.

Polymorphous (2015) - NYC Premiere

Set to selections from J.S. Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier," Polymorphous explores the subjectivity of perception through movement and technology. The work takes on the very idea of polymorphism, referring to the act of something that assumes or occurs in various forms.

Duets

Duets, a series of duets and double duets drawn from Pascal Rioult's extensive repertory, captures his knack for distinctive partnering.

Bolero (2002)

Bolero, one of Rioult's most popular works, is a bold and unique interpretation of Ravel's famous musical score. Its perpetual motion and ever-changing patterns build to an inevitable climax, creating a riveting tour de force.

 For more information, please visit: www.rioult.org

BALLET HISPÁNICO "Carnaval" 2016 Gala Raised More Than $1 Million And Honored RICHARD E. FELDMAN

Ballet Hispánico raised more than $1 million in support of the company's artistic and educational work in New York City and around the country at their 2016 Galaon Monday, May 16, 2016. 

Ballet Hispánico honored Richard E. Feldman with the Civic Inspiration Award and Linda Celeste Sims with the Nuestra Inspiración Award. The evening's festivities were hosted by Univision personality Lili Estefan, co-host of the network's "El Gordo y La Flaca." Proceeds from the evening will benefit the creation of new Company works, need-based financial aid and merit scholarships in the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance, and community arts education programs.

"We are thrilled to announce that we exceeded our goal of $1 million," said Kate Lear, Chair of Ballet Hispanico's Board of Directors. "The overwhelming generosity of our attendees and donors, along with the breathtaking talent of our professional and student dancers, made for a fantastic event with which to celebrate Ballet Hispánico's 45 years of changing lives."

This year's Gala, themed "Carnaval" and attended by 325 guests, was a Latino celebration of life through music and dance, featuring performances by the Ballet Hispánico Company, the rising stars of second company BHdos and students of the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance, along with live music by Latin band Los Hacheros.

Attendees included Gala Chairs Jody and John Arnhold, Kate Lear and Jon LaPook, and David Pérez and Milena Alberti; Benefactors Martin and Perry Granoff, James F. McCoy and Alfio J. Hernandez, Charle S. Wortman and Laura Baldwin, Jessica Rodriguez, Beth Owen-Wade, Brian and Shirley Colona, Michelle and Stephen Dizard, The Fribourg Family, Lisa and Mehmet Oz, Raul Pineda, Michael Rankowitz and Sheila Heffron, Olivier Rustat, Herb Scannell;Eduardo Vilaro, Lili Estefan, Rosie Herrera, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Stephen Dizard, Therese Caruso, Rita Rodriguez, Herb Scannell, James F. McCoy, Phil Colón, Olivier Rustat, Tina Ramirez, Richard Feldman, Sandra Rivera, Kathy Ross-Nash, Pedro Ruiz, Nancy Ticotin, Nancy Turano, Vanessa Valecillos, Rodney Hamilton, Linda Celeste Sims, Gale Brewer Manhattan Borough President, Marty and Perry Granoff , John and Gaily Beineke, Yue Bonnet, Cecilla Caceres, Cosme Caceres, Anne Cohen, John and Paula Connor, Paul Ellis/PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Winston B. Layne, Maggie Lear, Teresa Narvaez, Florence Peyrelongue, Ann and Richard Sarnoff, Glenn Allen Sims, Heidi Stamas, and Richard and Maritza Williamson, Roger Kluge, Denise Roberts Hurlin.

For more information, visitwww.ballethispanico.org. Follow Ballet Hispanico on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

JCC MANHATTAN’S 4th ANNUAL ISRAEL FILM CENTER FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES EXCITING SLATE OF EVENTS & SPECIAL GUESTS

Events to include Spotlight on Israeli Television, Family-Friendly Films and Tribute to Ronit Elkabetz with guests to feature actors directors, and producers including Navid Negahba (Homeland) Hagai Levi (In Treatment), Lior Ashkenazi (Walk on Water) and Shemi Zarhin (Aviva My Love)

JCC Manhattan’s 4th Annual Israel Film Center Festival  has announced its lineup of special events and guests to complement its previously announced lineup of film and television screenings.  The festival, which presents the best of Israel’s groundbreaking new cinema and television programming, features conversations with filmmakers, writers, and actors and runs from June 2 – 9, 2016 at JCC Manhattan with additional screenings in Westchester locations and in collaboration with Long Island’s Gold Coast International Film Festival. 

 The festival’s June 2nd launch event is the New York premiere of BABA JOON, the winner of the 2015 Ophir Award for Best Film (Israel’s most prominent film award), followed by a conversation with director Yuval Delshad and star Navid Negahban, known for his role as Abu Nazir in Homeland. 

Other exciting Q&As include writer-director Shemi Zarhin (Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, The World is Funny) following screenings of the Israeli box office hit THE KIND WORDS at JCC Manhattan and JCC Mid-Westchester and celebrated Israeli actors Lior Ashkenzai (Walk on Water, Late Marriage) and Asi Levi (Wedding Doll, Aviva My Love) following their film ENCIRCLEMENTS.   

Hagai Levi, creator of acclaimed, award-winning television series including HBO’s "In Treatment" and Showtime’s "The Affair", will be in attendance to present the first episode from his series "The Accursed" as part of the Festival’s Spotlight on Israeli Television. The Spotlight on Israeli Television will also include episodes of "Imported", a hilarious fish-out-of-water soccer comedy set in London which was recently acquired by NBC and "Fauda", a political thriller that has quickly become one of Israel’s highest-rated television series of all time.  
 
Director and master visual effects artist Jonathan Geva will speak with filmgoers following a screening of family fantasy film ABULELE. The Family-Friendly Films event also includes a free showing of Sesame Street-esqe puppet musical GUAVAS. 
 
On a solemn note, the Israel Film Center will also feature a rooftop memorial screening of SHIVA (SEVEN DAYS) in honor of beloved director and actress Ronit Elkabetz (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, The Band’s Visit).  

The festival will also premiere DAWN, a psychological drama based on a novel by Elie Weisel, followed by a conversation with the Director, as well as SABENA HIJACKING: MY VERSION the true story of the rescue of a plane in 1972 with interviews with three Israeli Prime-minsters who were part of the event. Screening will be followed by a conversation with the producer: Natan Dinnar, as well as the only American survivor of the hijacking.  

Tickets for the Israel Film Center Festival are on sale now.

For additional information, please visit: israelfilmcenter.org/festival  

A full line-up of guests filmmakers and stars available online.

AMANDA SELWYN DANCE THEATRE presents FOOTPRINTS: A Modern Dance Festival Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, NYC May 19-21, 2016 at 7:30pm

The West Side YMCA Community Arts Department and Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre present FOOTPRINTS: A Modern Dance Festival, May 19-21, 2016 at 7:30pm, at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater.  This second annual dance festival will celebrate innovative works of contemporary dance from diverse new and established voices in NYC dance. 

FOOTPRINTS will feature the following works:Dreaming into Being by Lillian Stamey and 96b; It is You, and You, and You by Jin-Wen Yu; Shaft Medley by Sue Samuels and Jazz Roots Dance Company; Untitled by Alana Marie Urda and Amalgamate Dance Company; EVO by Winnie Berger and Mook Dance Project; and Refuge by Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre. 

Performances will take place Thursday, May 19, 2016 through Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 7:30pm in the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA, 5 West 63rd St, NY, 10023. Tickets are priced at $15 for all premium and regular seats,  $10 for Students/Children, and $10 for YMCA NYC Members. To purchase tickets, visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/957283.

Performance dates/times:

Thursday, 5/19 at 7:30PM

Friday, 5/20 at 7:30PM

Saturday, 5/21 at 7:30PM

To learn more about the West Side YMCA Community Arts Department, contact Amanda Selwyn, Director of Community Arts, at 212-912-2635, aselwyn@ymcanyc.org, or visit http://www.ymcanyc.org/westside/pages/communityarts. 

About Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates original and dynamic dance theatre that raises questions, challenges social norms and values, and magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through an interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. Presenting dance in an immediate, mature, and inclusive way, we engage audiences from start to finish and beckon a response of thought, feeling, and soul. amandaselwyndance.org

Founded in 2000, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has presented over 30 productions at NYC venues including New York Live Arts, Dance Theatre Workshop, Dance New Amsterdam, Danspace Project, Ailey Citigroup Theater, The Kumble Theater, and John Jay College. We have been presented twice at Jacob's Pillow, Westfest, DUMBO Dance Festival, Dixon Place, Dance Teacher Summit, COOL NY, Movement Research, and Pushing Progress Series. We have toured to festivals, presented open rehearsals, interactive performance events and workshops, and offer arts-in-education programming through Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theatre to children in the NYC public schools.

"Amanda Selwyn is a master at illustrating the symbiosis of sound and movement, 
the romance of motion and emotion - she had me laughing, crying, cringing and gasping
all in the short 55-minute production." - Inside New York

"Amanda Selwyn's work is masterly and emotionally expressive, 
she is truly gifted in the art of dance making." - NYC Dance Stuff

About the West Side YMCA Community Arts Department

The West Side YMCA Community Arts Program strives to empower, educate, and maximize the potential of youth and adult emerging artists. Our classes are led by experienced instructors who create a stimulating atmosphere with lively activities, discussion and insightful feedback. We strive to create innovative performances, events, and programs that inspire, entertain, and reflect our diverse community.

About the Y

The Y is one of the nation's leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Across the U.S., 2,700 Ys engage 22 million men, women and children - regardless of age, income or background - to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nation's health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Anchored in more than 10,000 communities, the Y has the long-standing relationships and physical presence not just to promise, but to deliver, lasting personal and social change. ymca.net

Ardea Arts Presents Showcase Performances of BOUNCE The Basketball Opera

Ardea Arts announces BOUNCE The Basketball Opera, their latest project in development. Showcase performances will take place at Paerdegat Park in East Flatbush, Brooklyn Saturday-Monday June 25-27, 2016 at 6pm.

BOUNCE is grounded in pressing issues facing today's youth. Based on the Greek myth The Flight of Icarus, BOUNCE tells the story of Ike "The Flight" Harris, a high school basketball star bound for stardom. Audiences will see if "Flight" can rebound from the emotional and physical pain of gun violence as the story plays out on local basketball courts across the country.

Pairing diverse casting with a fresh approach to arts engagement, local high school students working alongside seasoned professionals are integrated into the production using the powerful medium of basketball. They become the basketball players, the cheerleaders and Flight's classmates and teammates. Local and national community leaders also play a number of the adult roles.

Basketball is a simple game - get the ball in the basket. But this 'simple' game becomes complex when outside forces like money and fame challenge team ethics. Isaac "Flight" Harris, a gifted and ambitious young player is on a fast track to stardom until his wings are clipped by the actions of a jealous teammate. We experience Flight's descent, then the powerful epiphany that changes his world forever. Synthesizing the grandeur of operatic singing with the grittiness of street rhythms, electronic dance music and urban hip-hop vocal stylings, BOUNCE asks: how does one rise up after being knocked down? The answer is in the game of basketball itself.

The creative team includes: Grethe Barrett Holby (Opera Director/Creative Producer), Glen Roven (Lead Composer/Music Supervisor) and Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Story and Libretto), with additional music by Tomás Doncker, (Global Soul Composer) and Ansolo (EDM tracks). The Production staff includes Dr. Everett McCorvey (lead Music Director), Gloria Parker (Producing Director), Chidi Ozieh (Managing & Media Director) and Clarence Tennell (Basketball Coach). The cast includes professional singers, actors, a hip-hop artist and high school students from GMACC, Inc. (Gangsta's Making Astronomical Community Changes) in East Flatbush, The EBC High School for Public Service in Bushwick, and the Business of Sports School (BOSS) in Manhattan. The production is 90 minutes in length with no intermission.

Ardea Arts has been developing BOUNCE in partnership with The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre. BOUNCE partners and advocates include prominent local council members, community leaders, and basketball industry advocates. This project is made possible in part by the support of The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, The John and Jody Arnhold Foundation, with in-kind contributions from BOYLAN Bottling Company, Newman's Own, Inc. and Marquee Screen Printing.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

  • Grethe Barrett Holby (Concept & Direction) The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Festival, Houston Grand Opera, La Scala, LA Opera & companies across the US. Originating cast member Einstein on the Beach; collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, Lou Reed, Robert Wilson and Yusef Komunyakaa. Founding Artistic & Executive Director Ardea Arts and Family Opera Initiative; Founder of American Opera Projects; a Rockefeller Fellowship recipient, Holby holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT.
  • Glen Roven (Lead Composer/Music Supervisor) Composer, lyricist, conductor, pianist; Founder and Artistic Director for RovenRecords, distributed worldwide by Naxos; 12 -time nominee and 4-time Grammy winner; collaborated with Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Sinatra, Julie Andrews, Aretha Franklin, Renee Fleming, Kathleen Battle and hundreds of other celebrities for film, television, Broadway, Carnegie Hall and many other international venues and orchestras.
  • Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Story and Libretto) Award-winning author, photographer and poet with over thirty books to his credit including a Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration (2010) for his photographs accompanying the Langston Hughes poem "My People" and a Coretta Scott King Honor Author Award (2008) for his biography on Muhammad Ali, "Twelve Rounds to Glory." Early books such as "Rimshots", "Hoop Kings" and "Hoop Queens" focus on his love of basketball.
  • Tomás Donker (Additional Music) Global Soul composer and producer. Directs, composes and performs with his ensemble, Tomás Doncker Band. Guitarist for James Chance & The Contortions, Defunkt, J. Walter Negro & The Loose Jointz. Collaborated with Boosty Collins, Yoko Ono, The Itals, & Prince Charles Alexander. Current projects with Ivan Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Meshell Ndegeocello, Living Colour's Corey Glover, P-Funk keyboardist Amp Fiddler Shamekia Copeland, & Bill Laswell.
  • Ansolo (EDM tracks) A DJ and Electronic Dance Music Producer, Ansolo has performed in major EDM concert venues and festivals around the world.
  • Everett McCorvey (Lead Music Director) Professor of Voice, OperaLex Endowed Chair in Opera Studies, and Director and Executive Producer of The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre: Artistic Director of the National Chorale, New York City; Director, American Spiritual Ensemble; Vice chair Kentucky Arts Council. Professional Credits: the Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Communale (Italy), Radio Music City Hall. A basketball fan, he often sings the National Anthem for UKY Wildcats games.

ARDEA ARTS creates and produces provocative new works of music-theater and opera to entertain, challenge and inspire today's diverse global community, uplift the human spirit, and encourage new ways of seeing our world.  In addition to BOUNCE, Ardea Arts repertory includes Flurry Tale  (1999), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2001), Fireworks!  (2002), Animal Tales (2005), The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz (2007), The Man in the Black Suit (2008), Goodnight Moon/Plums (2009), CAT (2010), Maya's Ark  (2013), BABAR The Little Elephant (2014), One Christmas Long Ago (2015), and in development, The Three Astronauts.

For more information, visit http://www.ardeaarts.com/bounce/.

DANCE TO UNITE presents 3rd Annual Benefit: One Way or Another Dance to Unite to Perform with Debbie Harry Live Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 6pm

Dance to Unite presents the 3rd Annual Benefit: One Way or Another on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 6pm, featuring live music from Debbie Harry at Avenues: The World School, located in Chelsea at 259 Tenth Avenue, NYC, 10001.  The evening will be a celebration of artistic excellence and cultural diversity to benefit Dance to Unite's expanding free after-school dance and education programs.  This year, Dance to Unite proudly honors Jenny Morgenthau, who recently retired after 32 years as the Executive Director of the Fresh Air Fund.  As part of the celebration, students of Dance to Unite will perform to music icon and Blondie lead singer, Debbie Harry's biggest hits live. Tickets can be reserved by making a $150 minimum donation per person at http://www.dancetounite.org/events/. The attire will be business casual.

““What I like about Dance to Unite is that we showed people that
no matter if we’re different on the outside we’re the same on the inside.””
— - Josh (age 9), program participant of Dance to Unite
““In the society we live in, unfortunately, many young teens do not have a support system. They need a place to go where it is positive and inviting. ... Often these youth are left to fall through the cracks and be forgotten. Dance to Unite will open so many doors for respect, and self-worth and give them the tools to succeed in life no matter what path they take.””
— -Tayna Carmon, a volunteer and parent of program participant

For more information, please visit: www.dancetounite.org

Ed Rothstein to host (Un)Silent Film Night - May 13, 2016

The New School's College of Performing Arts is pleased to welcome the public for the third edition of its (Un)Silent Film Night series, in which the College of Performing Arts Theater Orchestra will perform Jazz student Nathan Kamal's original score to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece The Birds. The event will be hosted by Ed Rothstein, Critic at Large at The Wall Street Journal and Hitchcock devotee. This production follows November 2015's edition of (Un)Silent Film Night which was hosted by actor, clown, and comedian Bill Irwin. The inaugural event in April 2015, hosted by Matthew Broderick, drew a capacity crowd to the 800-plus-seat Tishman Auditorium at University Center.

The upcoming (Un)Silent Film Nightwill take place Friday, May 13, 2016 at 7pm at the Tishman Auditorium,  63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, New York, NY 10003. Admission is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations required. 

Hitchcock's 1963 horror film The Birds, the chilling tale of a series of unexplained and gruesome bird attacks on people in Bodega Bay, California, is critically acclaimed as one of the legend's greatest works. The film, described as "unflawed" by esteemed critic David Thomson, is renowned as a stunning example of Hitchcock's masterful application of psychological tension. Instead of a conventional score, Hitchcock used sparse source music and sound effects to emphasize deliberate silences.

In late April, The College of Performing Arts (http://www.newschool.edu/performing-arts/) at The New School (http://www.newschoo.edu) presented the first annual (Un)Silent Film Night, in which music ensembles from the College's performing arts schools-the Mannes School of Music, the School of Jazz, and the School of Drama-performed live with screenings of landmark silent films. This inaugural program, hosted by Matthew Broderick, marked the debut of the Mannes Theatre Orchestra, which, under the baton of Charles Neidich, performed a new score by Craig Marks to the Buster Keaton film Sherlock Jr.

In (Un)Silent Film Night, the College of Performing Arts Theater Orchestra-featuring students from both Mannes School of Music and The School of Jazz-will improvise a full score with Kamal's "musical sketches" as a guide to Hitchcock's originally scoreless classic film. Out of Kamal's respect for Hitchcock's vision, the rich "natural" sounds of the film serve as the starting point for the new score, and the spontaneous quality of the musicianship will fit with the spirit of Hitchcock's mammoth capacity for invention. The orchestra will use a broad sonic vocabulary ranging from lush chorale harmonic textures to extreme dissonance and extended techniques. 

Richard Kessler, Executive Dean for the College of Performing Arts, said, "(Un)Silent Film Night demonstrates the potential that students and faculty are able to realize now that Mannes, the School of Jazz and the School of Drama have been brought together in our new College of Performing Arts. The program-like so many programs in the current professional arts landscape-brings together multiple art forms in a single production, and allows students to collaborate across disciplines."

Edward Rothstein, host of the event, is Critic at Large at The Wall Street Journal. He has also served as the cultural Critic at Large and the Chief Music Critic for The New York Times, and the Music Critic for The New Republic. Rothstein supports the theory that music and mathematics share common origins as discussed in his book Emblems of Mind. Rothstein is a Hitchcock aficionado.

ChEckiT!Dance now accepting applications for the Sixth Annual ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival - Deadline for Applications: May 6, 2016

ChEckiT!Dance is now accepting applications from female choreographers to the Sixth Annual ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival, an eco-friendly evening of dance celebrating female choreographers, on Saturday, July 23, 2016 at 5pm at Solar One on the East River, NYC (Rain date is Sunday, July 24th at 5pm). Pieces from any genre of dance that can be adapted to an outdoor space are encouraged to submit. The deadline to apply is May 6, 2016 and the application form is available at www.checkitdance.com.

The festival seeks to showcase the talents of strong, female choreographers in a welcoming and fun environment. ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is a carefully curated event that has featured the works of choreographers from across the globe, including California, Upstate New York, The Dominican Republic, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and more. The festival seeks to showcase the talents of strong, female choreographers in a warm and welcoming environment. Last year's featured artists included:

  • Cindy Sosa
  • Joya Powell/Movement of the People Dance Company
  • Jessie Sector/Tangent Dance
  • MJ/Innovate Dance
  • Bridge & Olive Dance
  • Ashley Sleeth
  • Cathy Allen/Red Desert Dance Ensemble
  • Victoria Brown/MashUp Contemporary Dance Company
  • Erica Hart
  • Jana Prager/Jana Prager Dance Theater
  • Kara Dudley/Kara Dudley Dance
  • InstaDance Collective
  • Allison Brzezinski/ChEckiT!Dance

The application deadline is May 6, 2016 to be considered for participation in the festival. 

Festival Application Guidelines:
1. Submit all materials listed on the application via email to checkitdance@gmail.com by Friday, May 6, 2016 (press kit, application form, link to performance/rehearsal footage), unless otherwise requested and approved by ChEckiT!Dance. 

2. Submit a non-refundable $65.00 application fee via PayPal on www.checkitdance.com, by Friday, May 6, 2016 or by check. Please send checks made out to Checkitdance LLC postmarked by May 6, 2016 to: 72-17 34th Avenue, Apt. 1R Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Choreographers must submit pieces no longer than 10 minutes in legth. For more information and to download a PDF of the 2016 Festival Application Form, please visit our website www.checkitdance.com.

To view photos and videos from the past five years of the festival, please visit our Facebook page:www.facebook.com/checkitdance

You can also check us out on Instagram by following @checkitdance

If you would like to receive an MS Word version of the 2016 Application Form or if you have any questions regarding the application process of the festival, please feel free to email us atcheckitdance@gmail.com.

The ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is the culmination of all of ChEckiT!Dance's efforts to increase performance opportunities for female dance makers. This annual outdoor festival, now in its sixth year, is curated and produced by ChEckiT! Dance each July. Summit Rock in Central Park was the home of the first four festivals. For the second year, the festival will be held at Solar One! on the East River. The ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is a platform designed specifically to provide female choreographers the opportunity to share their work with an eager audience. The work is enriching, lively, and thrilling, and the eclectic styles of dance presented by performers hailing from all corners of the globe, builds a truly global community of female dance artists. In addition, the ChEck Us OuT Dance Festival is entirely green and entirely free of admission, providing access for all.