Staff Picks No. 88
You Bettter : Sally Silvers and Co (full credits below!)
Roulette
March 20-22 2025
I met Sally in 2011 and I have been a big fan ever since. She is endlessly creative, innovative, odd and curious. My favorite qualities in a human and artist! She also loves roller skates, as do I. Bruce Andrews and Michael Schumcher are doing the sound design and live music, which is intriguing and exciting. I will be watching whichever night they do a live stream. Maybe I will see you on camera! Go go go!
***
There are three nights and they are all different links on the Roulette site.
Sally Silvers - choreographer, artistic director, performer
Collaborating Dancers:
Bria Bacon
Dominica Greene
Takemi Kitamura
Eva Rodríguez Langevin
Molly Lieber
Benedict Nguyễn
& S.C. Lucier (on skates)
Bruce Andrews & Michael Schumacher Sound Design & Live Music
Tamar Ettun Set Design (curated by Roxana Fabius)
Kathy Kaufmann Lighting
Elizabeth Hope Clancy Costume Design
Alexis Hoffman Associate Costume Design
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Above ground - not exactly a comedy - : Gloria Miguel, Sally Plass, and more
La MaMa
March 13th-23rd 2025
Ten actors, elders, all over the age of 65, use improv, dance, and storytelling to explore memory, the emotional resonance of the past, and to weave ten vignettes about aging. The cast is all longtime Westbeth residents and includes the wildly delightful Gloria Miguel of Spiderwoman Theater, and Sally Plass founder of the really beautiful Off-Broadway Oral History Project. There is much to learn from those who’ve walked our paths before! Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Fefu and Her Friends : Sophie Dushko
???
Current 2025
We love a site-specific production, and clearly others do as well: this version of María Irene Fornés' masterpiece is already sold out, but a waitlist holds promise. The ebullient artwork perhaps nods to the intrigue and sisterhood inherent to the play, and Dushko's work is one to watch.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Friday Night Rat Catcher : Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein
NYLA
March 27th-29th 2025
I've been obsessed with this piece since I caught a glimpse at Invisible Dog! Don't miss it!!
Staffer: Hillary Gao
You are actively doing yourself a disservice if you do not leap at the chance to see anything and everything these two do. Period.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
A Mother : Neena Beber and Jessica Hecht
Baryshnikov Arts
March 29th-April 13th 2025
Almighty Jessica Hecht steps into a new role: co-conceiver. She performs in this new take on Brecht’s lesser-known play but is also collaborating on it alongside Neena Beber. Offering a blend of disco, gospel, reggae, and Jewish music, all set against a 1970s Miami backdrop, this is sure to be a special production.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
The Threepenny Opera : Berliner Ensemble, Brecht x Weill
BAM
March 13th-15th 2025
For those not aware....... the big theaters in Berlin operate on differing puzzles of repertory schedules, so a show can run for years, but pop up for a small run every month or once a season. When I was in Berlin this past November, waiting in the lobby AT the Berliner Ensemble, I had a light exchange with a German woman in line as we waited for the evening's show "It's Britney, Bitch!" I told her I was in town with a friend and seeing everything we could. She asked if we'd be able to catch the Berliner Ensemble's Threepenny Opera - to which I said no, schedules didn't align - to which she said, "ah, what a shame. It's marvelous." Or something like that.
Now given the pricing I did need to solicit a sponsor for my ticket on social media, in what strikes me now as a fitting strategy to see Threepenny. So whether by penny, sponsor, or a swindle or two - fur die Oper, gehen Sie.
***
Berliner Ensemble
Based on John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera
Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and Music by Kurt Weill
in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann
Music Direction by Adam Benzwi
Directed by Barrie Kosky
Staffer: Matthew Antoci