#noirtown

[rottenwoodandwiltedsunflowers]

Miss your posts! How are you!

We miss our posts too! We are good but as many people know, have a 3 year old that keeps us busier these days. Waffle’s work schedule changed and has gotten more intense this year making it more difficult to find time to post. We have also been less able, as a result, to make as many trips to the hotel as we used to.

We are good though and we are actually making a trip to NYC today for a long weekend. Now days we tend to try to combine trips to catch other things we want to see. This weekend we will be doing Sleep No More in addition to Noirtown and Bartchland Follies. We will try to post something next week!

[dunwannawakeup]

To SNM fandom, if you are thinking of going to Play (an experience gallery), which is produced by SNM alum Taylor Myers, and have several SNM cast members involved including Mallory; and the new immersive theatre piece Noirtown, which has Chelsey and Shane on the show; I would recommend doing both of them in one night, because the two venues are literally 5 minutes walk away from each other.

Please notice there is no ticket to Play available online. I bought mine on site.

[witnessimmersive]

NOIRTOWN, the newest experience from immersive theater company WITNESS, opens August 9th as part of the Ken Davenport-produced Rave Theater Festival for five performances only.

A fully immersive promenade-style experience, NOIRTOWN plunges audiences into the shadowy and seductive world of film noir, where private eyes and femme fatales mingle in the dark corners of the city by night. Three radically different detectives take three radically different cases, all of which seem to be linked by the same enigmatic woman. As they each try to get to the bottom of their own mystery, more questions than answers are unearthed... Audiences are invited to follow their own detective instincts, and will be free to roam throughout the space and follow whichever characters and threads they please.

The cast features Nik Duggan, Daniel Harray (Orange is the New Black), Shane Jensen (Sleep No More), Kendall Kemp, Chelsey Ng (Sleep No More), and Stephanie Salgado. NOIRTOWN is written by Michael Bontatibus and directed by Charlotte Murray.

There are only five opportunities to visit NOIRTOWN, and space is limited. Performances are the evenings of 8/9, 8/10, 8/11, 8/17, and 8/24, taking place at The Clemente on 107 Suffolk St. For tickets and more information, visit www.witnessimmersive.com.

[skogshymn]

https://www.instagram.com/skogshymn

[monaedroid]

Jordan Peele was quite vocal about his intentions to subvert classic thrillers like “The Stepford Wives” in “Get Out,” and he’s up to something similar in a new project for W Magazine titled “Noir Town.” The publication asked the Oscar-nominated filmmaker to direct a fashion photo shoot, so he decided to call up his friend Janelle Monáe and create a story that subverts the Alfred Hitchcock noir by casting a woman of color in the lead role.

The photo spread tells the story of a private detective (Monáe) who is standing in a clock tower watching a parade unfold on the street below. The detective is searching for clues to a murder, but as she looks through her camera and studies the crowd she begins to notice one of the bystanders looks exactly like her. The identical stranger is one of many who begin to appear through the detective’s lens.

“I wanted to create a Hitchcock moment that doesn’t really exist in a Hitchcock film,” Peele explained about the project, which pulls from titles like “Vertigo” and “Psycho” but tells the story through a women of color. Peele handpicked Monáe for the lead and also insisted W Magazine hire a female photographer, Collier Schorr.

“I didn’t want the Hitchcock heroine,” Peele said. “I wanted the Hitchcock hero. That way, we can reclaim this movie that we never got to see. The fear of gender and race robs us of beautiful pieces of film…Putting Janelle in that character is all you need to create my new favorite movie.”

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/noir-town-jordan-peele-janelle-monae-hitchcock-woman-of-color-1201930563/

https://www.wmagazine.com/gallery/janelle-monae-jordan-peele-w-magazine-cover

[readwithjoy]

Stuff to see in NYC...

Every once in awhile I get a request for recommendations for shows in NYC.  I went to two this weekend that I thought were pretty fun.  

Galleria Esperienza from Roll The Bones Theatre Company was a cool set of experiences.  I did the entire package, and I’m glad I did.  Of note: although you can enter the space for free, the experiences have an à la carte cost. Galleria Esperienza is open Tuesday-Sunday, 6pm-10pm.  I’m not sure how long it will be running.

And Noirtown by Witness was an excellent bit of storytelling.  This is the second show I’ve seen from Witness, and I’m very impressed with the writing from this group. Noirtown is currently sold out, but there is hope that they might extend. If they do--grab a ticket!

[devil-speak-true]

If you want to visit Noir Town

In my handful of immersive theater-going experience, Witness’s second last project The Visitation is one of those rare shows which is actually worth going, with an affordable ticket price: 

the story is well-written, the cast is fantastic (SNM goers know), the acting is solid, and they weave the performance into the revenue seamlessly.

I have full faith in them, and I’ve been looking forward to their next project ever since.

Now I’ve already booked tickets of their upcoming immersive show: Noir Town, but it looks like they are still in need of financial help. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/noirtown/noirtown-an-immersive-experience?ref=discovery_category

Make a pledge if you can, if you’re interested in another solid immersive show!

[newyorktheater]

They installed metal detectors in the Al Hirschfeld Theater, the new home of “Moulin Rouge,” during the same week that panicking pedestrians a block away mistook a motorcycle backfiring for a shooting and rushed into the Shubert Theater during a production of To Kill A Mockingbird, halting the play and panicking the theatergoers.

  Tonight during my last speech in the play there was panic at our theater because a motorcycle backfired near Shubert Alley & people believed there was an active shooter & tried to get into the theater for safety. This was terrifying for the audience who heard screaming & banging

— Celia Keenan-Bolger (@celiakb) August 7, 2019

These are anxious times, and Broadway is not immune. Of course, theater people are practiced in the art of managing anxiety. “That’s the nature of the business — the uncertainty,” said Michael James Scott, one of seven actors recalling their reactions to performing in a flop.  Scott is now the genie in “Aladdin,” which means he has less to worry about at the moment. People may be drawn to shows like “Aladdin” and “Moulin Rouge”  — a fantasy in red that uses some 75 pop songs to take us back to Paris in 1899 —  because they want to escape the worries of the world outside the theater’s doors.  That seems less possible these days, even with metal detectors.

  The Week in New York Theater Reviews

Bat Out of Hell

Bat Out of Hell” is a frequently enjoyable jukebox musical running at New York City Center through September 8, using the muscular rock opera anthems from singer Meat Loaf’s trilogy of best-selling albums of the same name to tell a tale of impossible young love in a dystopian future Manhattan. Yes, it feels like an MTV glam metal music video circa 1980 stretched out to nearly three hours….. Yes, it’s loud, long, messy, and, largely, ludicrously self-serious.But what makes “Bat Out of Hell” so watchable, at least for the first two hours, is the magnetism of the cast.

Sea Wall/ A Life

Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal are certainly the reason why “Sea Wall/A Life” has now moved uptown to the Hudson…(But) The strength of these monologues lies precisely in their modesty – in the modesty of the production, which is presented on a virtually bare stage (except for the very end); and in the performances,  which are quiet, casual and nuanced; and in the characters, who each are humbled by their personal confrontations with both life and death.

Moulin Rouge

“Moulin Rouge” was thrilling from the moment I entered the theater… until about ten minutes after it began. That’s because the brightest star in this stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie musical is designer Derek McLane’s set….Even if I’d never seen the movie,0 I would surely be disappointed by the stage version

The baby and the rat fighting

No Brainer

For the 43rd summer in a row, Theater for the New City is touring a free original outdoor musical in streets, playgrounds and parks throughout all five boroughs (See schedule below.)  As in previous years, TNC’s hour-long street theater features a tuneful eclectic score, an entertaining mix of dance, song, social consciousness, silliness and satire, and a huge energetic cast who actually look like New York in its full range of delicious flavors.

Noirtown

It was uncanny how much “Noirtown” made me feel as if I was living inside a film noir classic like “The Maltese Falcon” or “The Big Sleep” – stylish, seductive, tough-talking and unfathomable.  For much of the time, I didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“Noirtown” opened the inaugural Rave Theater Festival,  which is presenting 20 new works from August 9th through August 25th in a single building..

Book review: The 100 Most Important People in Musical Theatre

  The Week in New York Theater News

  Closed on August 11: Be More Chill, The Prom Closing August 18: The Cher Show, King Kong, Pretty Woman

Why are so many shows closing in August? NPR looks for answers. One reason: schools are starting earlier

Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl will star Priscilla Lopez, Maulik Pancholy, Ashley Park, Thomas Sadoski, and Michael Urie. It opens January 23, 2020 at 2nd Stage’s Broadway theater, the Helen Hayes.

A Strange Loop will release an original cast album September 27 on the Yellow Sound label

To Protect, To Serve, and To Understand , a program of Brooklyn’s Irondale Ensemble Project, brings volunteer community members and police officers together for 10 weeks to break bread, converse, and play theater games

  Rest in Peace

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison, 88, Nobel Prize winning novelist (Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, etc) Toni Morrison wasn’t just a literary giant–her work has also inspired memorable stage adaptations, including Lydia Diamond’s THE BLUEST EYE and Nambi Kelley’s Jazz

  Bob Ullman, 97, veteran Broadway press agent

He promoted more than 150 Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including “Together on Broadway” with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, “Cactus Flower” starring Lauren Bacall, as well as “A Chorus Line” from its time in workshop to its award-winning, record-breaking run on Broadway.

Broadway in the Age of Anxiety. #Stageworthy News of the Week They installed metal detectors in the Al Hirschfeld Theater, the new home of "Moulin Rouge," during the same week that panicking pedestrians a block away mistook a motorcycle backfiring for a shooting and rushed into the Shubert Theater during a production of To Kill A Mockingbird, halting the play and panicking the theatergoers.

[witnessimmersive]

Come join us in NOIRTOWN. Tickets remain for this Friday's added performance ONLY -- get yours at witnessimmersive.com. 

Photo: Carly Hoogendyk

[witnessimmersive]

Tickets on sale now.

Support us on Kickstarter here!

[witnessimmersive]

On the hunt for tickets to NOIRTOWN? Our regular run is sold out, but we just added a show this Friday 8/16 at 9:30pm! Reserve your spot here.

Photo: Carly Hoogendyk

[witnessimmersive]

We’re halfway there thanks to our incredible audience and supporters, but we’ve got 11 days to take the NOIRTOWN Kickstarter campaign the rest of the way. If you haven’t already, please check out the campaign page above, or head to witnessimmersive.com for more info and tickets. 

[witnessimmersive]

NOIRTOWN opens THIS WEEK!

We’ve still got tickets for our opening weekend here, and have just four days to make our Kickstarter goal. Any amount helps bring NOIRTOWN to life this Friday. 

See you soon...

[witnessimmersive]

Rewards Spotlight: The Chanteuse. Come party with us.

NOIRTOWN is just around the corner. 

Our Kickstarter is still going here! And there are just two weeks to go before the first of our five sole performances. Check out tickets and details at www.witnessimmersive.com.

[witnessimmersive]

Rewards Spotlight: The Private Eye. For the detectives among us, both near and far. Check out our Kickstarter here, and snag your tickets at www.witnessimmersive.com. 

[witnessimmersive]

NOIRTOWN has been selected as a “Project We Love” by the Kickstarter staff! Check out our campaign page or head to www.witnessimmersive.com to get tickets to NOIRTOWN (space is limited, and tickets are selling...)