Currently one out of five people have cancer, which means we all know someone who has had cancer or have suffered from Cancer ourselves.  It is one of the leading causes of death in the US.

We all need to eat to survive and new yorkers go out for dinner as if there was no recession…and let’s be honest drinks are most likely invovled.  Combine these factors with the percentage of us affected by cancer and our love for Showtime tv and you have Show Hope:  what should be your number one event this fall.

Showtime has partnered up with Hope Lodge (provides free housing and support services for over 2,500 cancer patients and their caregivers while receiving world-class treatment unavailable in their hometown) to give you a fab fundraiser.  Attendees will dine, mix, mingle, and booze at the Metropolitan Home Showtime House in Tribeca.  The rooms are decorated by top interior designers from around the world to suit the top Showtime shows (Weeds, Dexter, Nurse Betty, the Tudors, Californication, and The United States of Tara).

All proceed go towards the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge,  how can you say no? This Thursday, for one night only cross the the line from reality into a world of fiction and fantasy and support a good cause.  To purchase your ticket please go to Show Hope’s website.

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Sienna Miller and Jonny Lee Miller make their broadway debut in After Miss Julie, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888).  The play is set in the english countryside during 1945.  It is the night of the Labour party’s election victory and there is a celebration at the homestead.  It is here that the parallel lives of the rich and beautiful Miss Julie meet with the chauffeur, John.  They have grown up alongside each other but in truly different ways.  The tale of sex and class has been a common story line throughout history but the passionate twists and turns in Marber’s exquisite work is a masterpiece.  Driven by dialogue, the success of the play comes from the actor’s performance and delivery.  Sienna Miller was satisfying in a predictable way, gorgeous blonde locks and her tiny frame.  As Miss Julie, she had numerous intense moments that were just hairs away from being believable.  The real earthy, raw emotion came from Jonny Lee Miller’s delivery of John, a man of pride who “knows his place” but is riveted by this night, this one night where his fantasy (he calls it “love”) is standing in his face, taunting him, enticing him to strip all boundaries between them bare.  How can this “love” last?

Roundabout Theater company’s After Miss Julie is playing a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theater on 42nd street, with it’s closing night on December 6th 2009.  See it before it is gone.

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This is your last week to go see over 20 off broadway shows for only 20 dollars!  Just show up to the box office 20 minutes before show time, this is your only chance to see shows like Fuerza Bruta for only 20 bucks.  20 at 20 ends this Sunday September, 20th.

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Remember those old “choose your own adventure” books?  It was the series we all loved to take out of the 3rd grade school library collection where you were given the freedom to determine how the story would unfold.  Inspired by Herman Melville’s mid-19th century novel “The Confidence Man” comes a Woodshed Collective production by the same name whose development follows a similar idea as those old favorites.  The story is told in a series of intertwining scenes and scenarios performed throughout manhattan’s own historical lighthouse tender, the Lilac.

The audience was given the freedom to explore the ship while exploring the play vignette to vignette in any fashion one desired.  If you got lost or needed direction there were four or so distinctly dressed play-guides, per say, who would be able to lead you through a story line coherently.  I felt like I was in a whole new world out on the Hudson River, balancing a brooklyn lager in one hand while climbing and running about the ship roaming from one time period to the next and back again.  It was a fascinating display and one that posed a very definite question of where and what you place your confidence in.  Who is to be trusted? How do you decipher  truth from vain?

The production of “The Confidence Man” will be held on the Lilac ship at pier 40 until the end of September.  The tickets are free and are going fast.

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Tags: herman melville, pier 40, play, stage, the confidence man, the lilac, woodshed collective

Vast are the cultures and traditions of Africa.  Josef Mueller began collecting pieces of African art over a century ago and now they are for all to see at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  From headress to sculpture, the Congo to Western Sudan you will be sent to a whole new world.  The exhibit opens Tuesday, June 2nd and will stay until September 27th, 2009.

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Tags: African and Oceanic Art, Art, Josef Mueller, Metropolitan Art Museum

The 2009 Summer Play Festival runs from July 7th to August 2nd and will feature seven new plays and one new musical for only $10!! The productions include:

The Chimes by Kevin Christopher Snipes, directed by Adam Immerwahr
Departure Lounge by Dougal Irivine, directed by Christopher Gattelli
The Happy Sad by Ken Urban, directed by Trip Cullman
Reborning by Zayd Dohrn, directed by Kip Fagan
The Sacrifices by Alena Smith, directed by Sam Gold
Tender by Nicki Bloom, directed by Daniella Topol
We Declare You A Terrorist by Tim J. Lord, directed by Niegel Smith
Whore by Rick Viede, directed by Stephen Brackett

Tickets are available at The Public Theater box office, 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, on Sunday and Monday from 1PM-6PM and Tuesday through Saturday from 1PM-7:30PM (212-967-7555). Tickets also are available for purchase online at the Summer Play Festival website ( www.spfnyc.com).

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Tags: festivals, musicals, Plays, theater

Held in the exquisite, community-driven Temple M in Sugar Hill, Harlem, “Eulogy for the Blackman”, directed by Michele Baldwin portrays the anonymous memoirs of various faces of the modern-day African-American male and is ironically held in a one time religious refuge on 141st and Amsterdam. In the first scene, Reginald L. Barnes prepares the audience with a dramatic and stereotypically comedic eulogy for a nameless man/men whom he had never met. Playwright Jamal Williams watched his well-written original from the mid-1990’s launch its second run on May 29th, 2009 with contemporary revisions including mentions of the 44th president and Osama bin Laden. The four cast members (two male and two female) performed their hearts-out, each breathing life into more characters than can be counted on one hand.

The intimate essence of community theatre resonated with an organic kitchen serving a homemade dish and non-alcoholic ginger-fizz that included herbs grown in the breath-taking garden, a true sanctuary in Harlem planted by French owner, Michel Madie . Blending the venue, production, and home cooking this event has the sense of transcending community and art into the living room of your own apartment…you will laugh, you may cry, and you should eat.

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Tags: eulogy for a black man, harlem, jamal williams, michele baldwin, reginald l barnes, sugar hill, temple m

The Metropolitan Art Museum has a rare and extremely fascinating exhibit on Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages.  These are drawings that will, most likely, never be seen again as they are hidden away in the great monasteries and libraries of England.  Dating from 800 to around 1340AD, the exhibit covers the  intriguing combination of scribes and illustrators ranging from religious works to the secular.

The early works are all found in books and were thought of as the highest form of artwork.  These illustrations are final products and not a means to another idea, as art is often used today.  Line drawing was appreciated and works, such as the Psalms, were illustrated literally although the text so often was metaphorical.

As the age progresses medieval scholars began using illustration as scientific work.  The exhibit contains books of physiology and anatomy as seen in the early 12th century.  Displayed, most fascinatingly, are anatomical diagrams of the nervous, arterial, skeletal, and muscular systems which monks drew as way to preserve texts that would not survive.

I found the collection fascinating and inspiring.  What may seem at a quick glance to be simple sketches, when looked at more closely are exquisite works.  Some of the parchments are uncut, so much so that you can actually see the spine of the animal.

The exhibit opens Tuesday, June 2nd and lasts through August 23rd.  Outstanding!

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Tags: Art, Metropolitan Art Museum, monks, parchment, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages

Leslie Ayvazian has done it for a second time.  Her new full length screenplay, entitled Make Me, has been brought to life on Atlantic Theater’s second stage under the direction of Christian Parker.  The play follows three story lines involving 6 people who are at a turning point in their relationships.  All, consciously or subconsciously, are effected by each other and drawn to grey the lines between day-to-day patterns, power, and control.

The highly talented and stage savvy cast played believably between each other and alone.  Jessica Hect was lovable and relatable as the wife and mother, Connie.  Her presence with the audience was vivid yet natural and her slight awkwardness was almost comforting to watch.  Others including Anthony Arkin, Candy Buckley, and Richard Masur graced the stage with understanding and depth.  Even still, Ellen Parker and J.R. Horne were both believable and touching as Sissy and Hank, the retired couple next door, the perhaps nosey couple, the sweet and nurturing couple and together the two shared the most precious moment of the production.  The two are seated on the couch and in a moment of complete silence, all emotion is completely understood.

Make Me opened last night, Sunday May 31st and will continue it’s run at the Atlantic Stage 2 through Sunday, June 14th.  The limited engagement will go by quickly and it is one you should place close to top on your must see Off-Broadway productions.

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Tags: Atlantic Theater Company, Leslie Ayvazian, Make Me, theater

In a world that is currently plagued with budget cuts and job loss it was incredibly refreshing to experience something new and exciting.  The Obie Awards went down last night like a crazy runaway circus, in a good way, and for the first time ever running tandum to the Village Voice theater Awards was the Creative Block.  The Creative Block was a sort of showcase for artists, and performers and gave the Obie’s that extra umpth to set it apart from all other award shows.

 Martha Plimpton and Daniel Breaker co-hosted the awards portion of the night, Plimpton claimed the venue brought back memories of her first cocaine use and losing her virginity. Presenters like Anne Hathaway and Karen Olivo gave out awards to Stephen Sondheim for Music and Lyrics, David Cromer for Direction of Our Town, and Francois Battiste for Performance in The Good Negro.  

Hot shirtless men walked around showcasing artwork by Michael Breyette,   musical performances by Joey Arias, and Project Jenny Project Jan, burlesque so hot and steamy it made the venue smell like dirty crotch,  a woman who could fling herself around on a rope, two girls called “Gravity plays favorites” that could pole dance like non other, made up some of the acts to keep the night going.  

Webster Hall was enthusiastically charged and rightfully so.  The OBIES celebrate the countless talent of all those involved in off-broadway productions.  It’s a night to remember, a night to dazzle, and a night to inspire.

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Tags: Art, creative block, obie awards, theater, village voice