There’s dancing in the streets!
While Gotham’s businesses and restaurants are hanging on for dear life and Broadway’s theaters remain weirdly dark, it’s somewhat comforting to know that the arts are kinda alive and well — in the form of interpretative street dance, courtesy of the mayor.
The pandemic has no doubt left its mark on the “World’s Borough,” well-known for its once-thriving, vibrant arts scene. Sadly, some entertainment and arts venues, like many other businesses, are either struggling or have shuttered. But happily, the word around town is that Queens will be making a comeback. Fingers crossed. You can sense that fighting spirit in those venues that have managed to keep their doors open despite all the challenges, and continue to entertain and enrich their audiences virtually, as they look to a brighter, more normal, future.
“The Queens arts scene is poised and ready to bounce back from the COVID pandemic. Many venues have been streaming high-quality programs for the past few months and most are already planning for live shows,” said Rob MacKay, director of marketing for Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC).
“The talent is still here, and there’s a lot of pent-up demand. So, I can’t wait for the elected officials to give the green light. It’s going to be great!”
Dev Bondarin, Astoria Performing Arts Center’s artistic director, reached out to QNS to tell readers what APAC has been up to.
A professional theater company that compliments award-winning main-stage programming with community outreach for students and seniors, APAC’s 2019-2020 season consisted of the in-person New York premieres of “Marguerite,” a one-woman musical about Canada’s first female saint, featuring Tony Award-winner Cady Huffman, as well as Charly Evon Simpson’s “Jump,” a play about a family grappling with loss, while a friendship blooms between two people who realize they have more in common than they thought.
“We were about to cast actors for our spring production of ‘Man of La Mancha’ when the shutdown occurred. We postponed that production and pivoted all of our programming online,” Bondarin explained. “In May and June, we produced ‘The Insiders,’ which consisted of six new, short musicals that told stories of the early days of the pandemic … all rehearsed, filmed and edited remotely and premiered on our YouTube channel. We moved our community programs online as well, and both our programs for seniors and youth met over Zoom, and their final presentations were shared virtually.”
In the fall, APAC created a film of the play “American Arcana,” a timely epic of survival and the fight for a better tomorrow, by Texas-based playwright Cyndi Williams. The film, which served as a benefit for APAC, was shared on their channel with Five Ohm Productions, a platform they have continued to use to share work each week as part of their online showcase, Winter Wednesdays.
“More recently, we released a cast album of ‘Marguerite’ with Broadway Records, and we are now at work on the world premiere of ‘Stuff,’ a radio play by Astoria-based playwright Mrinalini Kamath, which will be available at the beginning of April,” Bondarin noted.
She added: “Last fall, we took over the management of a theater space (formerly the Secret Theatre) in Long Island City. We look forward to welcoming audience members in person there when it is safe to do so.” In the meantime, info and announcements about online programming/events can be found at www.apacny.org and on social media.
Smaller venues, like Q.E.D. in Astoria, are having a harder time getting by. And Kambri Crews, owner of that popular comedy and fun spot, is angry and frustrated. She had a lot to say about her struggling business and more, telling QNS, “We need rent relief and funding now! There has been zero help from the city or state. If we survive or bounce back at all, it will be in spite of Cuomo, not because of him. Cuomo has purposefully ignored the arts industry for months and is only now trying to spin it like he’s championing them by hosting pop-up events. Well, these events aren’t benefiting a single venue and he isn’t working with existing venues to produce them.”
She continued: “Cuomo allowed events in public spaces and at non-licensed venues. While licensed venues – the ones paying the city and state fees, and under governance and regulated – can’t have them. Zero logic. The common rebuttal is ‘comedy (or music or other arts) isn’t essential,’ which is ignoring the fact that arts and entertainment shows actually are legal. It’s the charging admission that is prevented. So, if 50 people gathered in the park for a comedy show, that was allowed. But if I had those same people in the backyard at my venue and charged a ticket, that was illegal. The ticket is what makes it safer, with capped seating, orderly ingress and egress, contact info for tracing, and the venue is under the purview of the Liquor Authority and Health Department. A venue would also require spaced seating 6 feet apart and with no standing allowed per DoH guidelines.”
Crews also cited “the moronic rule” for bars and restaurants: “Comedy and non-incidental music is prevented but trivia is allowed. Why? Because per the SLA [State Liquor Authority] site, ‘the patrons are seated.’ Well, guess what? Patrons are seated at comedy shows and other events, too, and usually, trivia hosts are comedians. Every single person up the ‘food chain’ in government offices all agree that it doesn’t make sense and that, yes, it should be corrected but everyone says there’s nothing they can do. There is only one person who can change it: Cuomo. And he refuses to.”
She added: “This proposal, written by me and submitted by @SenGianaris to the governor’s office at his behest, was already tested in good faith last summer at venues across NY state, and has been approved by the DoH [Department of Health] and SLA. The governor has refused to sign off on it.”
“The arts bring in over $114 billion to NYC, so you’d think they’d get help, right?” Crews also noted.
To make ends meet, Crews has turned Q.E.D. into a book/gift shop, selling beer and wine to go, since December. “But it’s not paying the bills,” she said. “Just keeping the neighborhood interested in us and giving me a place to be a couple of days a week so that I don’t kill my husband.”
Other once-popular venues have sought greener pastures. The iconic LIC comedy spot, The Creek and The Cave, has permanently closed after nearly two decades, and just announced they’ll be relocating to Austin, Texas. Owner Rebecca Trent was one of many comedy club owners who called on the governor to support local venues.
Bigger places, like Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, seem to be having an easier time of it, offering virtual performances and programs that have been streaming online. Check out KCA’s upcoming shows, like “Music Makers: Oscar Perez” on March 16, 7:30 p.m. The pianist and Queens native has been described as “a gifted improviser and composer with his own distinct voice” who has combined his Cuban heritage with “straight-ahead jazz.”
On March 17, at 7 p.m., another free virtual event features an enlightening conversation/Q&A with award-winning poet, playwright and essayist Claudia Rankine. For more, click here.
What’s next at Queens Theatre? Well, a lot has been happening virtually: winter break drama classes for kids, Queens Storytellers Online, Playwright to Playwright and more. In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Theatre will premiere “The Way I See Now,” a short film spotlighting the unique collaboration with the Josephine Herrick Project’s F-Stop initiative, teaching the art of photography to women residents of Queensbridge Houses (March 7, 2 p.m.).
Partnering with independent distributors to bring Virtual Cinema offerings directly to Museum members and patrons for home viewing, Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), has been presenting a variety of new, ongoing releases. Now playing through March 8 (tickets: $12): “Test Pattern”– described as “a gripping movie with first-rate performances.” View a live online event (part of “Test Pattern”): “Directors Shatara Michelle Ford and James Gray in Conversation” (March 2, 7 p.m.). Each ticket directly supports the museum.
Thanks to a collaborative project between MoMI, Rooftop Films and the Hall of Science, you and yours can enjoy cool flicks this spring at Queens Drive-In 2021 from March 5 through June 30, on the grounds of the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, located at 47-01 111 St. For tickets and a current schedule, click here.
Offering one of the largest outdoor drive-in screens in NYC, with a capacity of 200 cars, high-quality DCP projection and adventurous programming, the Queens Drive-In was created last August amidst the pandemic, to provide arts and entertainment locally, bring back jobs, and support the larger filmmaking community.
And at Sunnyside’s Thalia Spanish Theatre, every month is still Hispanic Heritage Month!
The beloved entertainment spot wants to remind all their amigos that their spectacular dance performances will continue online until they can reopen the theater.
In a statement, Artistic/Executive Director Angel Gil Orrios said, “Flamenco Amigos Helping Thalia is the second part of our new campaign to help our organization and our artists in these troubled times. … Because we had to cancel this year’s flamenco production in our theater, we want to share our wonderful 2019 show of “Las Bacantes Flamencas,’ a Flamengo music and dance adaptation of Euripides’ “The Bacchae.”
“Until we are able to meet again back in the theater, we invite you to enjoy our extraordinary productions while supporting us.”
Check out their must-see tango performance as well, featuring powerful Latin Grammy Award-winning music.
“From lockdown on, we never really closed,” Leonard Jacobs of Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning told QNS. “First came our digital ‘pivot’: pop-up classes and Instagram art project. In July, when I became interim executive director, we began mounting outdoor concerts (stay six feet apart!), then launched two music series live-streamed from our black-box theater.” Now, there are many regular digital programs: a speaker series, JCAL Talks; a series to develop new plays; an online book club; galleries open by appointment.
“JCAL is like most Queens arts groups — despite revenue losses, we’re still here! And we know there’s no economic recovery without the arts — none,” Jacobs added. “So honestly, we’re just humbled to help lead the way.”
