The Playgoer: August Rush

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Friday, August 15, 2008

August Rush


by chris mills

What's coming up to bring you some joy as the new season impends? Mark Tribe’s on his way to 44 ½! Creative Time has been curating a great series for one of the giant video screens there in the heart of Times Square (between 44th and 45th Streets), pushing hard against the Disney. The performer-creator, Mark Tribe, teaches at Brown and created rhizome.org (a terrific new media/art site, which is worth a visit). He will be (re)performing a 1971 speech by César Chávez. Now seems a perfect time to (re)see Chávez in motion. The work is called The Port Huron Project 4: We Are Also Responsible and you can, appropriately, watch it in the street.

Not to be repetitive, but...Ontological Hysteric. Not Richard Foreman, but instead the Lab, and its summer series. Now is a good time to see some new work on the Bowery. I'd suggest the new piece by...and perhaps you know him as the company manager of Big Dance Theater? Jake Hooker. Aside from possessing one of the world’s greatest names, Mr. Hooker will be performing:

[WHAT WE SHOULD JUDGE WHEN WE JUDGE...]
LONELINESS, LOSS, REGRET, REDEMPTION:FOUR (4) LECTURES ON THE RECALCITRANT HUMAN CONDITION,VIEWED THROUGH THE PRISM OF MODERN ART AS REFRACTED THROUGH THE AESTHETIC OF THE ANCIENTS...
on sensation

It sounds great and the series just started tonight, and his piece runs August 20-23.

Last, one of my favorite reading series is coming back with a bang. Red Bull’s Revelation Readings begin on September 15th, with a restoration comedy adaptation by Amy Freed. Leigh Silverman, David Greenspan Michael Urie and F. Murray Abraham are part of the draw here, but the real fun is the range of plays and treatments (including The Cenci and Doctor Faustus, as well as other rarely performed gems and almost-gems). They have a great list this year and, as a company, they know how to give good reads!

Last, I am loathe to announce this, for I don’t want to elbow my way through a crowd tonight, but the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival will be featuring, among other works, the world premiere of Chatham Rhys’ A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version). And yep, there will be 200 guitars at Damrosch...pray it doesn’t rain!

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