Nautical and nice

By Kim Lightbody

Don’t miss the boat on this festival.

A tugboat and barge from the early 1900s are docking at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 this month, bringing with them nautical-themed fun to Brooklyn Heights.

The aptly named “Tug and Barge Week,” running from July 15 to 25, will include activities like kayaking and fishing, as well as theater and live music on dry land.

“We’re trying to bring back the waterfront,” said David Sharps (pictured), captain of the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, which will move upriver from its longtime Red Hook home for the festival. “Too many times, we rebuild waterfront parks and we ‘miss the boat,’ so to speak. There’s pedestrian piers and volleyball courts, but where’s the waterfront use?”

Along with Pamela Hepburn, captain of a 1907 tugboat, Sharps has planned 10 days of outdoor fun to change local attitudes about the East River. On July 16, adventurous locals can go kayaking under the Manhattan Bridge, fishing off the Pier, and watch a squid dissection, among other things. And on July 24, families can come see Showboat Shazzam, a circus show aboard the docked barge that includes flying trapezes, acrobats, and features Captain Sharps himself as a vase-balancing trickster.

Plus, each day of the program visitors can explore the Waterfront Museum on the barge, which is housing an art exhibition dedicated to deep-sea creatures.

“There’s a lot of activity,” said Sharps. “We’re trying to highlight the importance and significance of our water highway, for both commerce and enjoyment.”

“Tug and Barge Week” at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 [Atlantic Avenue and Furman Street in Brooklyn Heights, (718) 624-4719] from July 15 to 25. For info, visit www.brooklynbridgepark.org.

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Head PortSide, while you can

By Damian Harris-Hernandez

Exercise your sea legs a bit this month and hang out with old tars aboard the Mary A. Whalen, a historic oil tanker in Red Hook.

PortSide New York opens the hatch for some pre-work scuttlebutt and weekend R&R at TankerTime, a standing invitation every Wednesday morning and Sunday evening to come down and interact with Brooklyn’s working waterfront.

TankerTime is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for PortSide. The boat-based nautical non-profit aims to create a working maritime hub and cultural center at Atlantic Basin in Red Hook through performances, youth programs and boat landings.

“We’re bringing together two things never combined before: the working waterfront with the nouvelle waterfront,” says director Carolina Salguero, a Carroll Gardens native.

By “nouvelle waterfront,” she means the new esplanades, parks and developments along the water. “We need both the land component and the water component.”

Salguero’s vision includes a tugboat dock-and-shop, where crews come ashore and mingle with landlubbers, who in turn revel in the bustling maritime activity.

But for now, as Portside secures permanent residence at the basin, the group does it up with live music, film screenings and historic walking tours. To top the summer off, the tall-ship (read: pirate ship) Gazela docks abreast the Whalen on Aug. 19, bringing with her the Cabaret Red Light, who will perform aboard the 100-year-old barquentine.

The maritime merriment ships out Aug. 25, so get on board to enjoy the music, movies and sea breezes while you can.

TankerTime on the Mary A. Whalen [Pier 11 at Pioneer and Conover streets in Red Hook, (917) 414-0565], Wednesdays, 7-11 am; and Sundays, 5–9 pm until Aug. 25. Free. For info, visit portsidenewyork.org.

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'Pool Parties' return

By Aaron Short

Summer in Williamsburg means free waterfront concerts!

Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu open JellyNYC’s fifth annual Pool Parties at East River State Park on July 11, the first of seven free concerts on Sundays through Aug. 29.

Other concerts on the just-announced schedule include:

• Murder City Devils and Silver Ghost on July 18.

• Cap’n Jack, Lightning Bolt, No Age and The Death Set on July 25.

• A Brooklyn Bowl block party on Aug. 1.

• Cut Copy, Memory Tapes, Glasser and Restless People on Aug. 8.

• !!! and Future Islands on Aug. 15.

• Chromeo and Telephoned on Aug. 22.

• Delorean and Dominique Young Unique on Aug. 29.

Formerly at McCarren Park Pool, the Pool Parties shifted to East River State Park last year. The biggest loss was the slip ‘n slide, but this year, JellyNYC will more than make up for it with an expanded beer garden along the southern edge of the park.

The free concerts aren’t the only ones to take the stage, as the Open Space Alliance is presenting eight paid concerts this summer, including Weezer on July 16, Modest Mouse on July 23, Primus and Gogol Bordello on July 30, Keane on Aug. 6, Pavement on Sept. 19, and Belle and Sebastian on Sept. 30.

JellyNYC Pool Parties at East River State Park (Kent Avenue at N. Eighth Street in Williamsburg), Sundays through Aug. 29. Free. For info, visit www.jellynyc.com.

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'On the Waterfront' comes to the waterfront

“Edie Doyle” and “Terry Malloy,” the roles made famous by Marlon Brando and Eva-Marie Saint, interact on the waterfront

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 5.7 issue of 24/Seven)

Budd Schulber’s classic play “On the Waterfront” returns to the spot that inspired it, when Brooklyn’s Brave New World Repertory Theatre puts on a staged reading literally on the waterfront aboard the historic Waterfront Museum Barge in Red Hook.

The May 16 and 17 readings culminate the company’s sixth annual Salon Series, which featured the work of prominent Brooklyn playwrights, including Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” at various Brooklyn locations, ranging from the Old Stone House in Park Slope to Fort Greene’s BRICstudio.


As with “The Crucible,” which took advantage of the outdoor setting for the production, BNW wanted to be site-specific with “One the Waterfront” and bring the reading to life in the fitting environment.

“We specifically wanted to do ‘On the Waterfront’ at the Waterfront Museum,” said Brave New World Artistic Director Claire Beckman, who runs the theater with her husband, John Morgan, and directs “On the Waterfront” with Timothy Smith. “I went to David Sharp at the Museum and asked him about it, and it turned out he was friends with the writer.”

The writer, Budd Schulber, who currently lives on Long Island, will be on hand at the (sold-out) May 16 performance for a talk-back, as were other playwrights involved in the Salon Series (with the exception of Arthur Miller, though we can’t really hold that against him).

His play was based on a Pulizter Prize-winning series of articles that ran in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson, detailing the widespread corruption, extortion and racketeering of the Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts, and immortalized by the 1954 film starring Marlon Brando.

BNW’s own production will be a bit more bare-boned, with the readings staged and the actors dressed to the part, though aided by the appearance of scripts.

“You forget about the scripts, they just disappear,” says Beckman. “A lot of people in the audience enjoy the scripts – you feel like you’re part of the process. Since it’s a Salon Series featuring notable Brooklyn playwrights, it’s nice to remind the audience constantly that this was written by somebody.”

From the Brooklyn waterfront, the production will move with the barge as it travels the Hudson, marking he 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s own voyage up the river, to Manhattan’s West Side, with a reading on May 22 at Hudson River Park, and moving on to, appropriately, Hoboken, NJ, where the story is set, on May 29.

“This production would not be possible without David’s magnificent barge, enthusiasm for our work, and total cooperation,” said Beckman. “We are indebted to him and honored to be working with him.

Though this does mark the first time BNW voyages out of Manhattan, the company is still very much a Brooklyn-centric one.

“Really the point is to stay here and do theater in Brooklyn. That’s really what we are all about,” said Beckman. “We want people to hear them read by wonderful professional actors who live in your own borough who tend to generally work over the bridge and beyond. We are just as tired of traveling over the bridge to do a play as the audience is of traveling over the bridge to see a play. The idea was to skip the bridge all together and do it right here where we live and keep it local.”

Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s Salon Series culminates with“On the Waterfront” on May 16 (sold out) and 17, with lunch at 1:30 p.m. and the stage reading at 2 p.m., aboard the Waterfront Barge Museum (290 Conover St.).

The production on the Waterfront Barge Museum will then travel to Hudson River Park (Pier 84 at 44th St.) in Manhattan on May 22 and to NJ Transit’s Erie Lackawanna Plaza in Hoboken on May 29, with complimentary wine and cheese at 7:30 p.m. and the reading at 8 p.m. for both performances.

Tickets are $18 each. Reservations can be made by calling 917-285-8911 or by e-mailing theatre@bravenewworldrep.org.

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Brooklyn by bicycle

Photo: Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

The Five Boro Bike Tour may be sold out, but the day before, on May 2, you can enjoy a leisurely pedal through Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.

The 7th Annual Future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Bike Tour kicks off at 10 a.m. in Greenpoint at the northern end of Manhattan Avenue, ending 10 miles later on the Red Hook waterfront.

The event is free (though donations are welcome), and includes updates on the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 14-mile path along Brooklyn's western waterfront.

To RSVP, send your full name and contact information to ride2009(at)brooklyngreenway.org.

And, if you're not in the city-wide bike tour on May 3 but want to catch the sea of cyclists as they swarm through your neighborhood, you can find the tour route here.

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