ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
Fall Back: Annual Autumn Festivals
Photo by Lee Rayment
Somewhere that’s green: Communal Spaces sets its short play fest in Manhattan and Brooklyn community gardens.
BY SCOTT STIFFLER Like fall, that fleeting sweet spot between summer’s messy swelter and winter’s bone-chilling cold, we’re keeping this introduction brief — all the better to get right down to the business of presenting our totally subjective picks from the robust harvest of fall festivals in and around Manhattan. It begins!
COMMUNAL SPACES: A GARDEN PLAY FESTIVAL Green gathering places are an integral part of the show (and sometimes get cast as central characters), when Communal Spaces presents short plays in Manhattan and Brooklyn community gardens. The Alphabet City venue gets title billing, in Sarah Bernstein’s “Catfight at the Oasis,” which has long-suffering but dedicated garden administer Joanne tasked with brokering peace between the procat lobby and bird fanciers who want to ban feline strays from Green Oasis Community Garden. Angela Santillo makes her fifth consecutive contribution to Communal Spaces with “Welcome to The Fall,” in which a contemporary tour guide experiences fallout from a smokejumper’s 1973 crash landing on property occupied by a meteor strike survivor. The plays .com
run at 2:30 & 3:30 p.m., respectively, in Green Oasis Garden (E. Eighth St. btw. Aves. C & D). Charly Evon Simpson’s “An Apple Today” finds two sisters meeting at Warren St. Marks Garden (619 Warren St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn) to speak in confidence. When they encounter a former classmate, memories of playground romances and acts of emotional agression come flooding back. You’re already there for the 5 p.m. “Apple,” so it’s job accomplished when Dominic Finocchiaro’s “enter a garden” beings at 6. “Leaves turn from green to red to brown and fall to the ground. Life happens.” That’s all the playwright is divulging about the plot. Free. All plays run Sept. 12–27, Sat. & Sun. For more info, as well as a description of what’s on the boards (or brick pathways) in Bed-Stuy’s Classon Ful-Gate Community Garden and La Perla Garden (76 105th St. in Manhattan), visit communitygardenproject.wordpress.com.
DANCE NOW AT JOE’S PUB From its first year in 1995, those who’ve created content for DANCE NOW have been both constrained and inspired by the festival’s unconventional venues
Photo by Whitney Browne
Limited stage space serves as inspiration for DANCE NOW artists.
— which included swimming pools, firehouses, and galleries — until landing on its feet for good at Joe’s Pub, where the “less is more” mantra came with a mandate for “brevity, clarity and effect.” The 2015 edition will feature contributions from 50 New York-based choreographers who’ve presented over the past 20 years. Some, such as David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin will revive works (“Old Fashion Wedding,” a duet from 2009), while others will reimagine them (Heidi Latsky and Lawrence Goldhuber’s “Head Duet”). Established artists like Aszure Barton, Doug Elkins, and Ellis Wood (once up-and-comers) will be joined by emerging choreographers including Jordan Isadore, Cori Marquis, and Donnell Oakley. At 7 p.m. Wed. Sept. 9–Sat. Sept. 12 at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St. btw. E. Fourth St. & Astor Place). Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Encore Performance of 12 “producer’s picks” Thurs. Sept 24. ($25 advance, $30 at the door). To order: 212-967-7555 or joespub.com. Also visit dancenownyc. org.
THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK FOLK FESTIVAL Veterans of the 1960s Greenwich Village scene share the bill with young
groups from today’s New York City, at folk promoter Eli Smith’s fifth annual forward-looking throwback to the time when “the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger came together on Sunday afternoons to play music and socialize in the park.” From a stage in the southeast portion of the park, by the Garibaldi statue, the legendary John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramblers) will appear with old time string band The Down Hill Strugglers. Also booked for the afternoon: Balkan and gospel-influenced singer and songwriter Feral Foster; country blues guitar and fiddle duo Hoodoo Honey Drippers; Jalopy Theatre house jug band The Whisky Spitters; and square dance caller Alex Cramer, who’ll guide you in matters of partner-spinning and do-si-doing. Free. Sun. Sept. 13, 1–5 p.m. in Washington Square Park. Visit WSPFolkFest.com.
BETWEEN THE SEAS Day in and day out, they say a balanced Mediterranean diet is the best thing for you — but there’s nothing wrong with binging once a year, at least when it comes to that region’s
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