Fall Astoria Arts Roundup

In Astoria, there’s more to the fall season than sweaters and pumpkin lattes. We also have lots of exciting arts and culture happenings to enjoy, right here in the neighborhood. Here’s a quick rundown of things to keep your eye on.

VW Sunday Sessions at MoMA PS1

MoMA PS1’s Sunday Sessions series, sponsored by VW, is back with an exciting lineup. Guests have the opportunity to “experience art in real time” with showcases in dance, music, performance, and conversation. The three fall offerings are:

-October 23: 3PM
Mark Leckey, BIGBOXPS1ACTION:

The season kicks off with the opening celebration for the exhibition Mark Leckey: Containers and Their Drivers. Leckey activates his Sound Systems (2001-12), a series of massive anthropomorphic speaker towers, in front of a live audience.
*This event is free and open to the public

-October 29: 8PM
5th Annual MoMA PS1 Halloween Ball with Susanna Bartch

On the Saturday before Halloween, MoMA PS1 and legendary night life host Susanne Bartsch present the annual Halloween Ball. This year’s timely theme, The White House of Horror, will feature live performances, DJs, dancing, and the most artistic costumes in town.
Tickets can be purchased here.

-November 13: 2PM
ATM Presents DEN$E

DEN$E is a meditation on the themes Philadelphia-based collective ATM (At The Moment) has been developing: money (under the guise of financial uncertainty and daydreams), the erotic and hypersexual, selfie culture and shameless vanity, technology and the perils of globalization, and queer utopia. Including DJ Haram B2B Mhysa, Marcelline Mandeng + Haize, SCRAAATCH, lawd knows, Kayy Drizz, and :3LON.
Tickets can be purchased here.

Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Ave, Astoria.) (718) 777-6888

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Queens Arts Fund Applications Open!

Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) has recently announced that it will be awarding $226,000 to grant out through the Queens Arts Fund (QAF). Good news: this year QCA has been granted an increase of $48,000 in funding for Queens-based individual artists and nonprofit organizations producing cultural programming.

No matter what discipline you create in, if you’re an artist that meets the eligibility requirements you’re encouraged to apply for the 2017 QAF grant. Note that this a competitive application process with applications reviewed through a peer panel process. This is important: all applicants are required to attend an applicant information session, and there’s just one left. The final session will be held Wednesday, October 26 from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the QCA Building, located at 37-11 35 Ave, 37th Street entrance.

For more information, check out their official website here. Good luck, Queens creatives!

Surveillance Theatre Play-ing Around Jackson Heights

If you don’t mind making the quick trip to Jackson Heights, there’s some pretty cool immersive theater happening this weekend. From the press release:

On October 16th from 10:30am to 3pm, the Theatre’s 167 company will perform scenes adapted from award-winning novelist Marina Budhos’ new novel WATCHED at specified locations throughout Jackson Heights.

Watched focuses on the story of Naeem, a Muslim teen who is forced by the police to inform on his community in exchange for leniency when he is caught shoplifting.  The book and the scenes Theatre 167 are depicting on the 16th illustrate an all-too-common experience of surveillance within Muslim communities and the struggle of young men to assimilate, as seen most recently in The Night Of. 

So where can you catch these scenes in Jackson Heights on Sunday? Here’s a list of locations, along with the scene name:

Watcher: Diversity Plaza, 37th Rd, between 73 rd and 74 th Sts

Interrogation: Chhaya, 37-43 77th St #2

Graduation Party: Jackson Diner, 37-47 74th Street

Far Cry: 73rd St and 35th Rd

Ishrat: Diversity Plaza, 37th Rd, between 73rd and 74th St

Under the 7 Train: Corner of 73rd and Roosevelt

 

APAC Premieres Evensong

Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) is kicking off its 16th season with the world premiere of Evensong, a new play written by Christina Quintana and directed by David Mendizábal. This groundbreaking new work will tackle homelessness in New York City, seen through the eyes of a Mexican-American gay man. From the official press release:

Evensong traces the story of Teofilo “Teo” Aguilar, a young Mexican-American gay man and member of New York City’s working homeless population. A Texas transplant with big dreams, Teo works as a bank teller, goes on mediocre online dates, and searches for stability and human connection while navigating the tangled shelter system. Using structural elements of choral music and conventions of theatrical magic, Evensong is a tale of survival, growth, and faith in moments of loneliness and solitude. A shorter version of Evensong was featured in INTAR’s American Nightcap Series in 2014. The full-length play was featured on HowlRound and the Latina/o Theatre Commons’ Presente: A Roll Call of New Latina/o Plays last summer. The 90-minute production at Astoria Performing Arts Center marks the play’s world premiere.

Performances will take place from Thursday, November 3 to Saturday, November 19 at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, which is located at 30-44 Crescent St (at 30th Road). Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for kids, and can be purchased here, or at the box office thirty minutes prior to any performance.

Hedda Gabler at Ophelia Theatre Group

The Ophelia Theatre Group is thrilled to present Hedda Gabler this fall, with over three weeks of performances starting on October 27. Here’s a synopsis of the play:

All at once magnificent and terrifying, Hedda Gabler has given up her exciting high society life to settle down as the wife of an academic. But an old flame’s return resurrects old rivalries, shifts power dynamics and leaves one of the most iconic female characters of all time wondering: how can I be a woman when I have no talent for it? Stripped-down and streamlined, this fast, sexy, tense and surprisingly funny adaptation of Ibsen’s drawing-room classic, gallops towards an electrifying finale.

The performance schedule is as follows:

First Preview: October 27

Evening Performances: October 28 & 29, November 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 &19 @ 8pm

Matinee performances: November 6 & 13 @ 3pm

Most tickets are $18 and can be purchased here. Sunday night admission is “Pay What You Can!”

Ophelia Theater Group is located at 21-12 30th Road in Astoria.

Stage Version of 1984 Makes Its Debut In LIC

The stage version of George Orwell’s classic 1984 will be making its NYC debut this fall, courtesy of MidCity Productions. It will be staged at LIC’s The Flux Factory, located at 39-31 29th St. From the official press release:

MidCity Productions returns to the stage after a one-year hiatus with the New York debut of George Orwell’s internationally renowned tale of one man’s struggle with freedom in a dystopian society. Adapted for the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan, this critically acclaimed script got its world premiere in 2006 at the Actor’s Gang and was directed by Academy Award winner, Tim Robbins.Sullivan takes the world that Orwell created nearly seventy years ago, tweaks it here and there, and delivers a gripping and immersive retelling of Winston Smith and his trial for Thoughtcrime against Big Brother in the state of Oceania. And the fact that this production coincides with the upcoming presidential election is “100% intentional” claims the director, Dave Stishan.

Performances kick off Wednesday, November 2, and run through November 13, with shows Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased here.

 

So many exciting arts events, so little time!