MUSIC & THEATER QUICK LOOK SWITCHED ON
Preview Preview STRAIGHT TO THE CITY SHE LEFT ME THE POINTE Celebrated playwright Samuel D. Hunter (2014 MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’, 2013 Drama Desk Award, 2013 Lucille Lortel Award, 2011 Obie Award) debuts his latest work, Pocatello at Playwrights Horizons this month.
As with most of Hunter’s work, the play is set in northern Idaho and is based on a character’s dissatisfaction with modern life. Eddie, Pocatello’s anti-hero protagonist, deals with the all-too-familiar reality of a changing town leaving its most loyal residents in the dust. He struggles to keep himself afloat in a place where strip malls and franchises have become the norm. Hunter and Eddie both romanticize and cling to the disappearing, blue collar towns of the midwestern yesteryear. Directed by David McCallum, the show is equal parts devastating, laugh-outloud, and empathetic. Pocatello is playing as part of Playwrights Horizons’ 2014–15 season.
Trainor Dance returns to New York for their fourth annual concert, a diverse program held at the stateof-the-art venue of the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. The company, youthful both in age (founded by Caitlin Trainor in 2008) and in art (Trainor’s choreography often feels innocent, yet eager), introduces a new program next month, comprised of three pieces. The first, Faux Pas, features seven dancers in voluminous, jewel-toned drapery, set to Mozart concertos. Images of matadors are juxtaposed against dance moves you’d find at a rave, in a piece that draws unexpected parallels, a recurring theme for Trainor. Next, Courante is inspired by the varied sounds of contemporary, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. The final dance is a solo work performed by Trainor. Photographs of the New York skyline, as well as mirrors and water, create a reflective visual space that becomes more personal, as a self-portrait, as the event goes on. Look forward to an artful, yet cheeky night of dance, followed by a wine reception for all audiencemembers to unwind and discuss the performances.
POCATELLO
TRAINOR DANCE
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, W42ST, 9TH/10TH WWW.PLAYWRIGHTSHORIZONS.ORG
MMAC THEATER, W60ST, 10TH/11TH WWW.TRAINORDANCE.ORG
“Equal parts devastating, laughout-loud, and empathetic.”
OCTOBER 13–28TH
DECEMBER 4–6
Hell’s Kitchen sees the premiere of Phyllis Chen’s Lighting the Dark on Dec 10, with spellbinding compositions created on unusual instruments. Baryshnikov Arts Center, W37TH, 9TH/10TH
SPOILER ALERT In spring 2015, Jesse Eisenberg, made famous by his Zuckerberg turn in The Social Network, will star in the world premiere of The Spoils. A tale of a bullying bottomfeeder’s attempts to destroy an ex’s relationship. New Group, W42ST, 9TH/10TH
A LOTTA LIP America Ferrera’s 2010 move to New York “for career reasons” is paying off as she returns to 2econd Stage following 2013’s Bethany with Lips Together, Teeth Apart, which runs until Nov 23. 2econd Stage, W43ST, 8TH/9TH
Review THE BEERED BARD Immersive experiences are all the rage right now in the theater world, and if you ask us, few shows will actually immerse you quite like Drunk Shakespeare. Though the Bard has become highbrow through the years, the word ‘Shakespearean’ now synonymous with Elizabethan pomp and pageantry, the real Shakespeare and his body of raunchy work would probably feel way more at home at Drunk Shakespeare than in the King’s Court. Due to popular demand, the night of debauchery has reopened, after relocating from Quinn’s Bar to the more conducive Roy Arias Stages. Audiences can sit back and see what happens when a band of “professional drinkers with a serious Shakespeare problem” take shots and then attempt to perform a selection from the Folio. Shakespeare’s words provide a loose structure as spills, thrills, improvisation, jokes and general madness take over. Audiences are provoked to participate throughout the performance (congratulations, you’re practically a groundling!), but then perhaps Iago sitting down at your bar table will seem a little less wacky when you’ve got your beer goggles on.
DRUNK SHAKESPEARE ONGOING
ROY ARIAS STAGES, W43ST, 8TH/9TH WWW.DRUNKSHAKESPEARE.COM
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