THURSDAY
(via Housing Works)
Loose: A Comedy Show
August 11, 7 pm at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe: $10.
The always-effervescent Jo Firestone hosts this monthly evening of chuckles at the equally warmhearted Housing Works. But Firestone’s no ordinary comedy show host, no siree– she’s the brains behind ventures like Punderdome 3000, that oh-so-thrilling pun contest that’s either your worst nightmare or best dream come true.
She’s also responsible for The Inner Beauty Pageant and The Incredible Game Show Showcase, where comedians test out absurd game show concepts such as “Name that Spoon” and the one that, personally, thrills me the most: “Ravioli Fingers Gonna Getcha!”
This particular show might be a little more run-of-the-mill, as it features a lineup of comedians in lieu of some big n’ wacky concept, but it’s safe to say that no matter where Firestone runs a mill, it’s sure to be delightful. Your ticket includes a free drink and “special surprise guests,” which really, could be anyone. It’s loose!
FRIDAY
(via Disclaimer Gallery / Facebook)
#POWERVHS Closing Performances
August 12, 9 pm at Disclaimer Gallery: FREE
This evening wraps up #POWERVHS, a multimedia installation and “visual mixtape” curated by the artist RAFiA Santana and consisting of video art by eight artists, predominantly black and brown femme/woman artists. As RAFiA tells it, the show was born of a collaboration gone awry– some “local analog video artist white dude” approached her and asked to put her work out on VHS. After curating and putting it all together, the guy pulled out of the deal. The reason? “Because of my attitude,” RAFiA writes. But she was determined to realize the project anyway, and so she put together #POWERVHS with a “tiny fraction of dope artists I know.”
To close out the show, she’s bringing some good old fashioned IRL to the video-play dreamland that’s been housed inside the Silent Barn’s Disclaimer Gallery for the last month.
RAFiA herself will be on deck with a glitchy-in-a-good-way live performance. She’s joined by high-femme/harsh-noise creator Reagan Holiday (check out this vid of her being amazing at The Flat) and Yuni Verse (sadly not the animated character from Dance Dance Revolution), and Mop Nog. The event’s happening at the same time as the Bushwick Night Market Festival (6 pm to 9:30 pm), also at the Barn—so you can have a show and a souvenir.
SATURDAY
(design by Dani Leggard)
Thud!
Now through August 27, 9 pm at WOW Café Theater, East Village: $18.
This new play at the New York Fringe Fest, which I originally saw workshopped at NYU, follows a secretly drug-addled hospital clown who’s instructed to entertain a young bedridden girl.
The only problem with this patient is that the typical funny stuff won’t work– this sick child’s fancies are only sparked when the ol’ clown hurts himself, and hurts himself badly. Predictably, the result’s an entirely different brand of humor, thanks in part to visible foley effects created by the sound designer live onstage. It works because the sound designer wrote the play too.
So, if you have a vested interest in both dark comedy and the technical logistics of live sound effects, you’ll have plenty to see and hear, plus it’s getting archived to become “digital theatre,” so it’ll live on forever.
SUNDAY
(poster design by Sasha Velour)
Communal Spaces: a Garden Play Festival
Weekends, now through August 28 at various community gardens in Bed-Stuy, performances held between noon and 6 pm: FREE
The return of this outdoor festival of plays finds itself more centered in its sixth year; in 2015 they staged pieces of theater across the boroughs, inside community gardens from the East Village to Park Slope. But this time around, they’re scattering themselves across four gardens squarely in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood.
Amidst vegetables, creeping vines, and enormous sunflowers, you’ll find six plays penned and directed by local theatre artists, which will all be performed each weekend, one after another. You’ve got a Prince-infused story of heavenly redemption, a wedding, an “outdoor invocation,” an exploration on the “geographic language” of feelings, and more, all happening amidst lush greenery. Who knew it was possible in the city?