Summer Guide: Lisa D'Amour's Motor City Bayou
First new trees, then off to Detroit for the wide-ranging playwright. Plus, summer theater picks.
‘Second Stage Theatre Uptown’
Performances begin June 7
It’s a family affair at Second Stage Uptown this summer—but don’t bring the kids. In Michael Mitnick’s Sex Lives of Our Parents, about-to-be-married Virginia begins to receive visions of her mother’s erotic past, to say nothing of some very explicit Polaroids. Meanwhile, Anna Kerrigan’s The Talls, set in ’70s Oakland, concerns the exceptionally statuesque Clarke family—even the women are over six feet. Dramatic heights ensue when the eldest daughter develops a yen for her father’s diminutive campaign manager. McGinn-Cazale Theatre, 2162 Broadway, 2st.com
‘Ice Factory’
Performances begin June 22
While the state of Ohio remains securely poised between Indiana and Pennsylvania, the Ohio Theatre has recently relocated from the center of Soho to the far frontier of the West Village. But while Ohio West is being readied, artistic director Robert Lyons will host his annual Ice Factory fest at the downtown multimedia space 3LD. Signing up for this interim season are director Emma Griffin, writer Ruth Margraff, Aztec Economy, Untitled Theater Company #61, and others. 3LD, 80 Greenwich Street, sohothinktank.org
Details
Summer Guide 2011
Art: On Stellar Rays' Candace Madey Talks Lower East Side Art
Books: Don't Shrug This Atlas--The Real State of America Atlas, That Is
Dance: The Ballet Nacional of Cuba Steps Into BAM
Dining: Eat the Phreak
Film: Bellflower's Muscle-Car Mayhem Shifts the Summer Into High Gear
Music: Don't Take Brad Paisley to the Airport Strip Club
Related Content
More About
Lincoln Center Festival
Performances begin July 5
Though Lincoln Center stands all the way across town from the United Nations, it aspires to a similarly worldwide feel during its annual summer festival. This year’s participants include Ireland (Druid Theater Company’s production of Sean O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie); France (Peter Brook’s version of The Magic Flute); Japan (Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion); and England, whose Royal Shakespeare Company brings five from the bard to the Park Avenue Armory. Various locations, new.lincolncenter.org/live
‘PTP/NYC’
Performances begin July 5
If summer’s sun and fun just don’t thrill you, consider descending deep into the bowels of Atlantic Stage 2 for some gloomier fare. Rape, suicide, murder, insanity—the Potomac Theatre Project has yet to meet a sinister subject it doesn’t adore. This summer’s lineup is no exception—it includes Neal Bell’s homicidal Spatter Pattern (Or, How I Got Away With It); Steve Dykes’s grim Territories; and Howard Barker’s Victory, which stars Jan Maxwell as a widow searching for her husband’s body. Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, PotomacTheatreProject.org
The Fringe Festival
Performances begin August 12
New York is no stranger to fringe groups—anarchists, extremists, sects, cults, freegans, the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. But the New York International Fringe Festival, in its 15th year, now seems a very regular endeavor, consistently providing space and support for some 200 dance and theater shows. This year, local artists perform alongside productions from Sydney, Bucharest, and Tel Aviv. So join 75,000 other audience members as they dip into this regular celebration of the theatrical periphery. Various locations, fringenyc.org
