Volume 78 - Number 42 / March 25 -31, 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

The A-List

Compiled by sarah norris
sarah@thevillager.com

Multimedia

CITY OF LOVE AND Disaster
Heavy is the burden of the artist who strives to do many things at once; happy is the audience who witnesses them succeed. We’re betting what’s left of our in-foreclosure house that David Michael Friend and Daniel José Older will succeed. Their “JazzSoul Rockumentary” combines music, theater and puppetry to explore race riots and freedom marches in old New York. A mere $10 is your donation to support this sprawling, ambitious work – a “live historical document, created and conceived in collaboration with artists, historians, and young people from around New York.” Thursday, March 26th and Friday, March 27th at 8PM. Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street. 212-220-1460 or www.tribecapac.org.

Poetry

The Book-In-Hand group reads from “Cantos” by Ezra Pound, above

Bowery Poetry Club
On Tuesday, March 31, Bowery Poetry club offers four events — all celebrating the newfound power given to the written word when read aloud. At 5:30p.m., the Book-In-Hand Reading Group passes Pound’s “Cantos” around the table — with all comers getting a chance to read excerpts. At 6:00p.m., “WordShop” presents readings by former National Poetry Slam winner Karyna McGlynn. McGlynn also appears as part of the 7:00p.m. “Urbana Poetry Slam” program. At 10:00p.m., those with poetry of their own to share can sign up for Bondfire’s Open Mic (10:30p.m. to 11:30p.m.), and stick around for the Bondfire concert series which closes the night. Prices vary, from free to the highly reasonable fee of $5. At 308 Bowery. 212-614-0505. www.bowerypoetry.com.

Theater

Photo by Ho Chang
Characters wait, but not for Godot, in a scene from “The Bus Stop”

THE BUS STOP
This 1983 comedy by Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian makes its NYC debut — and is the inaugural production from Theatre HAN. Taking its name from the Korean word meaning “one,” “wide and all- encompassing” and “sorrow,” the troupe is dedicated to presenting rarely seen foreign plays and re-examining Western classics from a multi-cultural perspective. Condemned as “spiritual pollution” by Chinese Communist Party officials and banned from production, the controversial play recalls Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” Eight characters wait and watch buses pass without stopping as they ponder deeper problems than being late or passed by. From March 26 through April 19. Tuesday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7pm, and matinees on Sat. & Sun. at 3pm. Sanford Meisner Theatre, 164 Eleventh Avenue (between 22nd & 23rd Streets). Tickets are $15, available at 212-352-3101 or www.TheaterMania.com.

Art/Theater

Photo by Jim Moore
Alyson Pou in “A Slight Headache” 

A SLIGHT HEADACHE
Half art installation, half play; this metaphysical mother/daughter drama written by Alyson Pou concerns the plight of two women whose bond is metaphorical as well as literal (the daughter’s been attached to her mother since birth, by hair which cannot be cut). Prior to the performance, a carnival-like barker invites the audience to enter a “cabinet of curiosities” where souvenirs such as hair growth elixir and puppets are for sale. Then, proceed to the back area where mother and daughter perform their daily show among velvet curtains, sideshow banners and piano. Thursdays through Sundays at 7:30p.m.; through April 19. At the Melville Gallery of South Street Seaport Museum, 213 Water Street. 212-748-8786 or www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org.

Sculpture

From “Selfportrait in Bathyscaphe”

Aga Ousseinov
As long on title as it ambitious in theme, “Selfportrait in Bathyscaphe and Other Loosely Connected Stories” is the first solo exhibition of New York-based sculptor Aga Ousseinov. His works “transform the fantastical construction’s of a child’s dream world” into a new reality populated by scuba divers, mechanical animals and flying submarines — all inspired by Umberto Nobile’s Arctic voyage. And you though your interests were eclectic! Through April 12. At the Christopher Henry Gallery, 127 Elizabeth Street. 212-244-6004 or www.christopherhenrygallery.com.