Corkscrew Theater Festival, which runs July 10-August 3, inaugurates its Corkscrew Downstairs series of workshop productions this summer in the lower level theater at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). The four projects all take classic texts as a starting point, including A Doll's House, Twelfth Night, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and Leslie Feinberg's 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues. The Downstairs series shares one team of designers -Dan Daly (sets), Christina Tang (lights), and Cinthia Chen (props)-and one flexible repertory set, deepening the festival's focus on exploring collaboration in different forms.
Festival Baltimore proudly presents a solo recital with Brooklyn-based virtuoso pianist Beth Levin on Saturday, June 29th at 7:30pm at Linehan Concert Hall at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Levin is celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers.
It feels in many ways poetic that both the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth fall on the same year. That's precisely where The Bearded Ladies Cabaret comes in. The Philadelphia-based experimental cabaret troupe is part of La MaMa's STONEWALL 50 celebrations, joining a group of LGBTQ+ artists from around the globe. The Beards' contribution is the New York premiere of their CONTRADICT THIS! A BIRTHDAY FUNERAL FOR HEROES, which---spoiler alert---starts as a birthday party for 'much-lauded homo poet' Walt Whitman and descends into a trial, taking on Whitman's problematic political views, our imperfect heroes, and cancel culture as a whole.
Summer at Lincoln Center is a time-honored New York tradition, bringing people from all walks of life together to experience a multitude of music, dance, and drama across the entire campus.
Weston Playhouse Theatre Company presents an ode to youth, life, love, and the strange beauty of human connectedness, I AND YOU (July 4 - July 21 | Walker Farm), Tues - Sat 7:30pm; Wed & Sat 2:00pm; Sun 3:00pm.
Cake, coffin, gavel, choir, composers, live musical trolling! On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the much lauded poet Walt Whitman's birth, a group of Philly queers and misfits known as The Bearded Ladies Cabaret gathers to put this ancestor and his legacy on trial. Should Whitman be canceled? Can he be? Come with friends, complaints, heroes and villains alike. All are welcome. Presented by La MaMa, the New York premiere performances will take place in the Ellen Stewart Theater (June 20 - 29).
La Mama Experimental Theatre Club has programmed a month-long series called the Stonewall 50 celebration. Coinciding with this weekend's World Pride event, 13 Fruitcakes arrives with a few instructive sentences about New York in 1964 when the World's Fair was opening. The mayor orders the city's social pariahs off the streets including the homeless, druggies, prostitutes and homosexuals. That's a far cry from rainbow windows at Nordstrom's in midtown today. Halleloo!
How did a carpenter's son, grammar school dropout and sometime hack writer become America's greatest poet? To commemorate Whitman's 200th birthday on May 31, 2019, this landmark exhibition showcases New York's role in the extraordinary transformation of Walter Whitman Jr. to 'Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son.' On public view at the Grolier Club from May 15 to July 27, 2019, the exhibition brings together over 200 extraordinary books, manuscripts, photographs, and other objects to show how this obscure young New Yorker transformed himself into one of America's great artists, the Poet of the Body: New York's Walt Whitman.
Hailed as "one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its "full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times)," The Dessoff Choirs today announced its 2019-20 season. The Dessoff Choirs celebrates its 95th season with performances of choral masterworks by both 20th century luminaries and today's most innovative composers. In addition to Dessoff's popular holiday concerts, the season features the New York premiere of Craig Hella Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard, a reprise performance and CD release of Margaret Bond's The Ballad of the Brown King, and the Faure Requiem in the original 1893 version. (The complete season schedule is below.)
Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heroes will take place as part of Stonewall 50 at La MaMa, a month-long celebration of World Pride with exciting voices from around the globe and down the block, featuring multiple generations of queer performers as they pose questions, honor legacies and ignite the present.
Corkscrew Theater Festival is pleased to announce the mainstage casts for its third annual festival, which runs July 10-August 3 at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). The festival features four world premieres, four workshop productions, and four readings performed in repertory over four weeks, with 80 performances in all. As in past years, special attention has been given to theater makers who are developing work through tight-knit collaborations. Tickets are now on sale.
59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) announces the 2019 line up for the annual EAST TO EDINBURGH festival. EAST TO EDINBURGH begins on Tuesday, July 9 for a limited engagement through Sunday, July 28. The performance schedule varies. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets to each EAST TO EDINBURGH show are $15 ($12 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call the 59E59 Box Office at 646-892-7999 or visit www.59e59.org.
Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The final performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, is FREE and will take place on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 2:30pm at the Reading Room, Bryant Park, New York City, NY.
City Lit's 40th Season to explore key moments in American history through fact, fiction and fantasy. Productions will include the Chicago premiere of Peter Parnell's ROMANCE LANGUAGE, a revival of Kristine Thatcher's VOICE OF GOOD HOPE, and world premiere adaptations of Robert F. Kennedy's THIRTEEN DAYS and Owen Lister's THE VIRGINIAN
Second Stage Theater has announced complete casting for the Broadway production of Tracy Letts's Linda Vista. Directed by Dexter Bullard, the production will feature Ian Barford (Wheeler), Sally Murphy (Margaret), Caroline Neff (Anita), Chantal Thuy (Minnie), Jim True-frost (Paul), Cora Vander Broek (Jules) and Troy West (Michael).
On June 28, 1969, a routine police raid of a gay bar in New York City turned into a violent conflict that ignited protests lasting for days. The Stonewall Inn Uprising is celebrated by many as the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. But the history of gay life in America extends far before and after Stonewall. Using commentary from LGBTQ+ allies and icons (including Matthew Shepard's parents, Stonewall eyewitness participant Mark Segal and Gene Robinson, the first openly gay priest to be consecrated a bishop by the Episcopal Church) and expert perspectives from Smithsonian curators, new documentary SMITHSONIAN TIME CAPSULE: BEYOND STONEWALL tells the story of the LGBTQ+ community in America through an exploration of rare artifacts in the Smithsonian collections, predominantly from the National Museum of American History. SMITHSONIAN TIME CAPSULE: BEYOND STONEWALL premieres Monday, June 24 at 8 PM ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.
Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The next performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, will take place on Sunday, May 26, 2019, 7:30 pm at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The next performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, will take place on Sunday, May 26, 2019, 7:30 pm at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass.
The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission has calendared six New York City sites for possible landmark designation based on their cultural significance to LGBT and American history. The expert research and ongoing advocacy of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project contributed significantly to the selection of these important place-based historic sites.
