Results tagged “cultureproject”

Scandal-mongering reporter Augustine Early is an opportunistic parasite who'll do whatever it takes to get the scoop on a front page story—even if it means manufacturing the story himself. He's amoral, vindictive, and seemingly devoid of compassion. He's also, as it happens, a lot of fun to spend a couple hours with. In Ronan Noone's briskly entertaining one-man play The Atheist, the charismatic Campbell Scott brings a rakish charm and incisive wit to a role that, in the wrong hands, might have been simply repellent.

In early 2007, The New Yorker writer George Packer published an enthralling article about the desperate plight of Iraqis who had assisted the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result, with little or no U.S. protection. Betrayed, Packer's first play, is based on interviews conducted while in Iraq for the sixth time to research his article; the fictionalized account concerns three young Iraqis – two men and a woman – whose willingness to risk their lives to help the Americans is rewarded with an indifference bordering on contempt. Following tonight’s performance, Pulitzer Prize winner (and My Trip to Al-Qaeda playwright) Lawrence Wright will join Packer for conversation about the war in Iraq. Betrayed continues through March 16th at Culture Project; ticket prices vary.

MOVIE: BAM pays homage to the late Barbara Stanwyck tonight with a screening of Forbidden. The 1932 Frank Capra-directed film (which tells the tale of a librarian who has fallen for an unobtainable/married man) was supposedly influenced by his real-life affair with the leading lady. Critic and historian Elliott Stein will discuss the film after the 6:50 screening. 4:30, 6:50 and 915pm // BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave., Fort Greene] // $11 Meanwhile, the...

Last Sunday and Monday a collective of activists, journalists, retired government officials and theater makers gathered at The Culture Project to begin mock impeachment proceedings against President Bush. The “trial by theater” arose in part out of frustration with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to leave impeachment “off the table” when her party seized the House majority. The month long series, called A Question of Impeachment, is intended to spark debate and, participants hope,...

Nigeria is a so-called “developing” country saddled with a corrupt government, crushing international debt, appalling slums, guerilla warfare, malaria, kidnappings, environmental disasters and an average life expectancy of 47. It’s not as bad as other African countries; of course that’s not saying much. If you’re like me, it’s a place that’s just not very high up on your list of vacation destinations. Thing is, we go there just about every time we fill up the gas tank. Nigeria is America’s fifth largest oil supplier; Shell, Chevron, Exxon, et al suck 2 million barrels of oil a day out of the Niger Delta. The black gold has enriched successive unsavory dictators (and now unsavory “elected” officials) for years while local tribes fight amongst themselves – and hold oil company employees hostage – to get a taste of the development spoils.

THEATER: The annual Soho Think Tank Ice Factory, arguably New York’s most impeccably curated theater festival, has been hosting an exhilarating array of new shows every weekend since July 4th . Starting tonight you can sink your teeth into Vampire University, in which “a struggling vampire family descends on an evangelical college in the Midwest, the dad’s mid-life crisis of immortality triggers a desire to come back to life and the gulf between first and second generations vampires has never seemed greater.” Scored to live Theremin! John Del Signore

EVENT: BKLYN DESIGNS 2007 kicks off today. The design expo will not only provide the latest trends and lots of fabulous things for your home - but all day panel discussions, interviews and of course parties, after parties and much more.

Every show biz impresario knows that the best way to get to Broadway is not by waiting for Guffman but by stirring up a little controversy. Though it seems unlikely that’s what Connecticut high school students intended while developing a play about the Iraq quagmire, controversy is what they got when Principal Skinner Canty cancelled their little performance. After the ensuing uproar, which included public outcries from such heavyweights as Edward Albee and Christopher Durang, two off-Broadway theaters in New York have offered to produce the play, called Voices in Conflict.

EVENT: Upstairs at the Square, the bookstores series featuring musicians and authors in conversation & performing their work, is happening tonight. This one will be featuring musician Badly Drawn Boy and author Dana Spiotta, with host Katherine Lanpher.

Kevin Spacey is coming back to Broadway with the acclaimed London production of A Moon for the Misbegotten. (Spacey last appeared on the Stem in two other Eugene O’Neill plays, Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh.) A Moon for the Misbegotten will begin previews on March 29th at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, which was recently befouled by the Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan catastrophe The Times They Are A-Changin’.

THEATER: The Impact Festival and fall at the Culture Project get started in a big way with the world premiere of The Treatment, which starts previews tonight. Add together playwright Eve Ensler (of Vagina Monologues fame), stars Dylan McDermott and Portia, director Leigh Silverman, and a sharply topical play about a traumatized soldier who saw and took part in too much for his psyche to handle when he was a military interrogator, and you've got all the makings of a must-see. - Mallory Jensen

MOVIE ART: Young artists with wtf?-attitudes come together to bring us "Risky Business" - a showcase of mixed media, including video, sculpture, collage, painting, and photography. A parents-out-of-town themed art party will follow the opening.

One of the more blatant examples of problems in recent New York City real estate development has been the so-called "Tower of Bowery" located above an old gas station on 3rd Street and the Bowery. When the building first started to rise up its developers used every trick in the book to build the largest building they possibly could (for instance claiming that they were going to have faculty housing they built extra tall... but no school was ever involved with the building and no faculty will ever move in). As it became increasingly clear that something was really wrong on 3rd street the neighborhood went into action. Specifically, one Mr. Kevin Shea submitted a protest to the Department of Buildings pointing out the myriad problems with the tower, as built as originally planned. The troubles for the tower piled nearly as tall as the building itself, and eventually the original developers bailed from the project and sold it to new owners.

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author.

From the looks of the shows opening and already running, this is a good week for nontraditional, multidisciplinary theater around town. OK, so maybe just about every week is good for it, especially in comparison with cities where theater options are limited to high school plays and (maybe) traveling versions of Beauty and the Beast. But the eclectic quotient seems to be running particularly high at the moment.

For a change of pace, this week we bring you a glimpse of the working process of a small New York theater company, a hint at the seams that underlie the shows we normally see from a plush chair in the house of the theater and then review for you. The company in question is LightBox, which is just about five years old now; the show is Ajax: 100% Fun, which opens on Wednesday at the Culture Project. Yesterday, at the invitation of director Ellen Beckerman, we went to a rehearsal at the Trisha Brown dance studios, where – in the absence of set or costumes or footlights – we gained a measure of insight into how the theatre creations we love so much actually come together.

Maybe it’s just us, but the days and weeks seem to have slowed down to less than a crawl lately, as though they were molasses and this were actually a cold January. That’s what good theater’s for, though – to transport you to another place and make you experience time differently. This week there’s a motley assortment of shows on offer to help.