Mark Dendy’s new dance-theater work, New York new york: Astor Place, mines the rich history of the Public Theater building, the original Astor Library, whose collection eventually made up the lion’s share of the New York Public Library’s holdings.
The stage at Joe’s Pub in the Public Theater becomes a portal through which we meet a shape-shifting cast of time travelers, habitués from past and present Astor Place and the surrounding area. The piece looks at gentrification through the specifics of one New York neighborhood and asks: What is change? Does history merely repeat itself? The piece explores race relations and violence, the never-ending conflict between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, the role of tabloid news now and then, and a meditation on the book itself though dance and text.
Dendy hosts the evening as William B. Astor, heir to one of America’s first millionaires John Jacob Astor. Along the way we meet a writer, a reporter, a real estate agent and her clients, a male stripper, a freed slave, an East Village ‘80s punk, a disgruntled Irishman, and a book-burning preacher.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
WEDNESDAY thru SATURDAY @ 7 & 9 PM
Part of DANCENOW'S 20th Anniversary
