The Weekend: 7.29-7.31

Friday, July 29

Gowanus: Calling all kings of New York — the Bell House is hosting a "Newsies" sing-along tonight. There'll be trivia and a dance off, so practice those high kicks.

Fort Greene/Williamsburg: An animation festival lands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Automotive High School this weekend — but don't expect Bugs Bunny.

Windsor Terrace: The Bard meets Brooklynese in the newest production from Brave New World Repertory Theater — "The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace)." Also Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday, July 30

Coney Island: Coney's got talent in the second annual Coney Island Talent Show, right on the Boardwalk.

Red Hook: Practice your "Arg, mateys!" A pirates festival comes to the Enviromedia Mobile, a traveling nature and maritime museum.

Sunday, July 31

Prospect Heights: That's no toga party — a free production of Sophocles' "Antigone" comes to Mount Prospect Park today.

Read more...

Carnie talent show comes to Coney Island

By Alex Rush

The carnie competition is back!

The second annual Coney Island Talent Show returns to the Boardwalk on July 30, paying homage to the neighborhood’s history as the early 20th century capital for kooky entertainment.

This year’s contest will feature circus freaks and sideshow geeks (hey, it’s what the category’s called), including contortionists and celebrity impersonators; dance troupes; and a costume contest. There’s also a “creative kids” round for pre-teens and teens who think they have what it takes to be the People’s Playground’s next great circus performer.

The show’s host may be just as entertaining as the competing acts: World Famous BOB — a longtime staple on the city’s burlesque and drag queen circuit known for Marilyn Monroe-look and the ability to mix martinis with her cleavage — will lead the annual ode to Coney’s past, when sword-swallowers and men who could blow smoke through their ears were a dime a dozen.

“It’s really great to bring the entertainers together with people from the community to celebrate the tradition,” said Gin Minsky, a Bushwick-based dancer who will be competing with a less-bodily harming, 1940s-style swing routine.

The Coney Island Talent Show on the Boardwalk (between W. 10th and W. 12th streets), July 30 from 4 to 8 pm. Free. For info, visit www.thirstygirlproductions.com.

Read more...

One serious play

By Meredith Deliso

It’s no toga party when the Xoregos Performing Company does a free performance of Sophocles’s tragedy “Antigone” this month at Mount Prospect Park.

The July 31 show, at the park near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, marks the company’s first Brooklyn stop for its annual summer show, which travels to various parks and libraries.

And this is a serious play: In the Theban civil war, two brothers who died leading opposite sides of the battle for the thrown. The new king, Creon, decides to honor one, Eteocles, while refusing to honor the other, the rebel Polyneices.

The injustice drives their sister, Antigone, to defy the king, and bury Polyneices herself — even though punishment means being buried alive.

Written more than 1,500 years ago, the play has remained relevant thanks to one central question.

“The whole idea is do you follow your conscious, or do you follow man-made laws that you know are wrong?” said director Shela Xoregos. “The audience has to make up their minds.”

“Antigone” at Mount Prospect Park [enter on Eastern Parkway next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Prospect Heights, (212) 239-8405], July 31 at 6:30 pm. Free. For info, visit www.xoregos.com.

Read more...

Spread the 'Newsies'! Sing-along tonight

By Meredith Deliso

Calling all kings of New York.

Tonight, the Bell House hosts a sing-along to “Newsies” — that early-1990s Disney musical based on an 1899 strike by the city’s newsboys (you know, the ones who yell “Extra, extra! Read all about it!”).

The film stars a fresh-faced, pre-Batman Christian Bale as the leader of a ragtag clan of poor newsies, who go on strike when publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst try to take some of their profits.

It’s pretty cheesy stuff — the boys have names like Specs and Boots, and there’s plenty of big group dance numbers and fist-raising anthems including “King of New York” and the Musketeers-esque “Seize the Day” — but that’s all part of the fun.

All musical numbers will be subtitled so you can sing along, and there’ll be themed drinks, trivia and costume contests, and a Newsies dance-off. So work on your high side kick now.

“Newsies” sing-along at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643-6510], July 29 at 8 pm. $8. For info, visit www.thebellhouseny.com.

Read more...

Arg, matey! Pirates Festival coming to Red Hook this weekend

By Jared Foretek

Calling all Brooklyn buccaneers!

Enviromedia Mobile, a travelling nature and maritime museum in Red Hook, will throw its first ever Treasure Cove Pirates Festival on July 30 — and you won’t have to hand over a single copper piece to be there.

The festival will feature pirate theater, pirate music, pirate “edutainment,” and yes, even a pirate ship, while leaving out all the scurvy, mutiny, and rum binges.

“It’s a fantastic festival,” said Ludger Balan, the museum’s culture director. “It’s as good as any one that goes on around the country.”

Indeed, these maritime celebrations are a common occurrence in places like Northern California, Tampa, Fla., Georgia’s Tybee Island, even Wisconsin.

In what’s sure to be a highlight of the family-friendly event — beyond photo-ops with Jack Sparrow look-alikes — young aspiring sailors can meet a team of seamen who set the record for the most days at sea without seeing land (1,152 days, or three years!). Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad’s record-setting vessel, the Schooner Anne, will be anchored nearby for visits.

Kids will also be able to participate in a catch-and-release fishing tournament, make arts and crafts, and canoe with the organizers, who will all be dressed as “The Pirates of Red Hook” — a team of buccaneers who “plunder for the natural resources of the urban estuary,” said Balan.

So start practicing your “Arg, mateys!” now.

Treasure Cove Pirates Festival at IKEA/Erie Basin Park [Beard Street between Otsego and Dwight streets in Red Hook, (347) 224-5828], July 30, 11 am-5 pm. Free. For info, visit emmredhookpirates.blogspot.com.

Read more...

This cartoon festival is no child's play

By Haru Coryne

Brooklyn’s biggest animation festival features plenty of cartoons — but it’s no child’s play.

The eighth annual Animation Block Party presents nearly 100 short films over the course of three days, with love stories and war films screening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene and Automotive HS in Greenpoint from July 29 to 31.

Just don’t expect “Looney Tunes.” The animated shorts promise to capture the full variety of filmmaking as an art form, with plenty of abstractionism to boot.

“Parents come here expecting Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse, and all of a sudden they get some German experimental film with nudity,” said festival founder Casey Safron.

Take, for instance, Williamsburg filmmaker Becky James “Shapes in the City.” The difficult-to-define piece runs just under five minutes and follows the “life” of a simple, geometric shape — with all the action of a dark, 1940s noir.

“There’s a murder, there’s a dance scene, there’s theft,” said James. “There’s even a circle smoking a cigarette on a corner.”

Animation Block Party at the Automotive High School [50 Bedford Ave. near N. 13th Street in Greenpoint, (718) 218-9301] and BAMcinématek [30 Lafayette Ave. between St. Felix Street and Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100], July 29-31. Free. For info, visit www.animationblock.com/summerfest2011.

Read more...

It's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor...Terrace!'

By Meredith Deliso

Hey, Shakespeare — Fuhgeddaboudit!

Brave New World Repertory’s newest site-specific production adds some much-needed “dese” and “dems” to update the Bard, Brooklyn-style.

In “The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace),” a free production running July 28–31, the company takes some liberties with Shakespeare’s domestic comedy, setting it in the neighborhood during the 1980s with the knight Falstaff reimagined as a low-level gangster, and the women he tries to swindle as big haired, “Real Housewives” types.

And, of course, there’s lots of Brooklynese — a bit of Clifford Odets mixed with that guy from Avon — but does it work?

“The Brooklyn accent sings with this language in a way Shakespeare probably would have been surprised by,” said company founder Claire Beckman, who stars as Mistress Ford in the play. “The cadence and music of Brooklynese plays beautifully with Shakespeare’s language.”

Still, the play did require some changes — the Thames, a body-dumping ground in the original, becomes the Gowanus Canal; and Prospect Park, Canarsie and Carroll Gardens substitute for English parks and neighborhoods. And, of course, Windsor is always referred to as Windsor Terrace.

“Our Brooklyn take on the play is a very affectionate love letter to an old Brooklyn that’s disappearing,” said Beckman (save, of course, for pubs like Farrell’s on Prospect Park West). “We set it back before the information age, when people were a little more social, out on their stoop messing in each other’s business, and Brooklyn was a little bit louder and less gentrified.”

And this being the ’80s, think big hair, shoulder pads and leggings. 

“Since we’re playing him as a mob guy, we’ve got Falstaff in a track suit, with a gold chain kind of look,” said director John Morgan.

Keeping with the theme, the play will also take place in the heart of Windsor Terrace, outdoors at Holy Name Parish’s Our Lady’s Field, right next to the little league baseball field.

“The audience will be watching the action, and right behind them is the background of Brooklyn brownstones,” said Morgan. “And we’re right on Windsor Place. You can’t be any better than that.”

“The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace)” at Our Lady’s Field at Holy Name Parish [130 Windsor Pl. at 16th Street in Windsor Terrace, (718) 768-3071], July 28 and 29 at 5 pm, July 30 and 31 at 3 pm. Free. For info, visit www.bravenewworldrep.org. 

Read more...