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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, August 26, 2021 Page 12
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Queens performers are ready by Mark Lord
Chronicle Contributor
In venues large and small, indoors and under the skies, the borough’s professional theaters are slowly but steadily beginning to welcome back live audiences following 18 months of closure brought about by the Covid19 pandemic. Over the next few weeks, a wide variety of performances — theater, dance, music and more, of both the mainstream and eclectic varieties, including some with free admission — will remind theatergoers, if, in fact, they need to be reminded, of the joys that can be had in the sharing of such experiences. Tana Sirois, performing arts director of Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City, which is off and running with a jam-packed lineup, appreciates the rebirth. “Art, especially live performances, has always provided opportunities for people to get together and experience culture,” Sirois said. “We have been deprived of that so long.” But no longer! For the time being, Culture Lab’s shows take place outdoors in the gallery’s parking lot every Thursday and Friday beginning at 7 p.m. and every Saturday and Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. All are free. New York-based soul/funk group Bombzr performs on Aug. 26. A jam session featuring tenor/soprano saxophonist Stacy Dillard happens on Aug. 27. City Billies, a band dedicated to reggae and bluegrass, takes center stage on Aug. 28, sharing the bill with Splash! Dance Performance, Shelley Nicole’s blaKbushe (a celebration of Black-on-Black love), and the Nice One Comedy Show. Aug. 29 belongs to Israeli musician/vocalist Roni and Jennah Vox, a homegrown singer/songwriter. The festivities continue into September, with performances ranging from a sevenpiece hip-hop group and a jazz orchestra to a Bee Gees cover band and a contemporary ballet dance company. At each performance, Rockaway Brewery beer, burgers, hot dogs and ice cream will be available for purchase from the Culture Lab’s food truck.
Bassam Abou Diab, a Lebanese contemporary dance artist, will perform at Green Space as part of a collaboration with Valerie Green/ Dance Entropy. PHOTO COURTESY BASSAM ABOU DIAB
The Plaxall Gallery is located at 5-25 46 Ave., Long Island City. Just show up, grab a chair (provided) and enjoy! For further information, visit culturelablic.org or call (347) 848-0030. The music plays on in another parking lot in another part of town, courtesy of the Queensborough Performing Arts Center, which is offering live concerts at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Bayside. With a nod to the drive-in movies of a bygone era, attendees may enjoy the entertainment while remaining in the comfort of their cars — or they may bring along chairs to set up alongside them. Beginning at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29, the crowd will be treated to the sounds of The Kings of Disco, a musical group featuring former members of the Village People, who will likely bring back plenty of memories with hits such as “YMCA” and “Macho Man.” And on Sept. 17, also at 7 p.m., a Beatles tribute group, Here Comes the Sun, performs the hits of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Remaining tickets for both shows, which must be purchased in advance, are $100 per car for full-car occupancy. The shopping center is located at 212-45 26 Ave., Bayside. More: Visit qcc.cuny.edu/qpac or call (718) 631-6311. The Alley Pond Environmental Center presents a “Welcome Autumn Concert,” featuring the family-friendly Long Island-based folk music band Gathering Time. A fundraiser for the nonprofit APEC, the concert takes place on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Free parking is available. It takes place in the shady grove just north of the center’s home at 224-65 76 Ave. in Oakland Gardens. Tickets: adults: $25 (concert only) or $35 (concert and box lunch); children 12 and under, $5 less. More: Visit alleypond.org or call (718) 229-4000. W hile in-person perfor mances have resumed at historic Flushing Town Hall, its current attraction is a watch-on-demand concert taped live at the venue in July: “Proud Mary — Rock and Roll Ladies,” featuring The Emilie Surtees Experience Band. It’s billed as a “highly energetic concert” that will “excite any music lover who’s ever been caught belting out songs like Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” or Stevie Nicks’ “Go Your Own Way.” It is available to watch any time between ticket purchase ($7) and Aug. 30 at midnight. More: Visit flushingtownhall.org. The Chocolate Factory Theater is up and running with several in-person events already on the schedule, including “The Nosebleed,” written and directed by Japanese-American Aya Ogawa, an autobiographical piece that explores Ogawa’s fractured relationship with the playwright’s long-deceased father. Running Oct. 1 to 10, the play will be performed at Japan Society (333 E. 47 St., Manhattan). Tickets are $30. The theater will be presenting the following attractions at its home base: A free event, described as a “three-way collaborative performance adventure,” will take
A Beatles tribute group, Here Comes the Sun, will play the hits of the Fab Four in a QueensborPHOTO COURTESY QPAC ough Performing Arts Center show at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center. place on Oct. 3. “AUNTS — Triple Threat” to help bring people back. It’s been a terrifyfeatures multiple performers in a work that is ing time for everybody. People are ready for it. “multi-disciplinary, finished, unfinished, We can start to have the experience of life again.” experimental, a dance party and more.” The Chocolate Factory is located at 38-33 Another piece, with a title that surely ranks among the longest in the English-speaking 24 St., Long Island City. More: Visit chocoworld, “The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed latefactorytheater.org or call (718) 482-7069. Green Space, billed as the “Incubator of Keepsakes of Maery S.,” is a hybrid experimental digital theatrical miniseries that, dance in Queens,” continues its monthly according to advance word, “reinvents as curated series “Take Root,” which supports many versions of the ‘Frankenstein’ author dance makers by providing an opportunity to present a paired evening of Mary Shelley as there are works. Live performances definitions of the word resume in September. ‘Gothic.’” On offering includes the This event, described by fifth phase of “Home,” an the theater’s Executive international collaboration Director Sheila Lewanbetween Valerie Green / dowski as “an immersive Dance Entropy and chorevideo and sonic experiographers from diverse ence,” will be screened in Shows traditional countries including Swefront of a live audience at and avant garde den, India and Colombia, the theater on Halloween, marking the culmination of Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. It will a residency with visiting then be released online. choreog rapher Bassa m Featuring intricate handAbou Diab, a Lebanese cut collages, digital and analogue animation and illustration, dramatic contemporary dance artist. In the piece, each presentations and songs, among other diver- artist examines the concept of home from his sions, the piece was created by playwright or her own unique perspective. Diab has explained that “my view of Sibyl Kempson and is performed by her ‘home’ as an artist coming to the United troupe, 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf. Co. Running Nov. 10-13 is “Puro Teatro — a States is linked to accepting religious, ethnic spell for utopia,” conceived and directed by and cultural differences to generate a feeling luciana achugar, who is also part of the cast. of safety and belonging.” Also, Diab will present his solo work, The work is said to consider the possibility of the theater inherent in the intimacy of our own “Eternal,” which raises questions about the experience within the spaces of our bodies, role of the dancing body in facing the despotic political regimes in Arab countries. Live our homes and our communities. Lewandowski describes herself as being music will be provided by Richard Khuzami “incredibly emotional” about the idea of on percussion and Maurice Chedid on oud, the predecessor of the European lute. Performancresuming live performances. “Culture is life,” she said. “To be able to go es are on Sept. 24 and 25 at 8 p.m. continued on page 22 back into a theatre and feel safe to me is going
