On The Road with the Street Theater!

Well! Well! Well! We've done it again! The Street Theater is on its feet and running all over New York. Going to all 5 Boroughs. We've already done the Bronx, Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan. We're due to go to Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Saturday, and Travers Park in Jackson Heights, Queens on Sunday.

You know, it's really funny. You really have to know who you're writing for. We opened on 1st Avenue and 10th Street on Saturday, August 4th. We had a good 200 people (low estimate) in the audience. We were an instant "hit (you never know for sure if you've reached your target 'til you bring it out to the Street)." A very fine friend of mine, saw the show and came over to congratulate me, after. She told me the show was fabulous. But she also told me, that the start of the show doesn't really work, until we get to the High School scene. Well, the start of the show is all about a local Gang and how they steal tire rims and are now going into the Bath Salts business, and in this section, one of he members gets kicked out of the Gang because he objects to hard drug selling and all the bad stuff that comes along with it.

The next day, Sunday, August 5th, we went to St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx. And guess what this audience was crazy happy about?! The beginning! All the Gang stuff, the young kid's courage in the face of peer pressure. So there you have it! They loved this kid, and they loved the young gang members who were bulldozed by the new Drug Kingpin. So it goes! Some people (community activists) love the whole section in Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street part of this, rather rambunctious musical. Others love the ending, when all our neighbors turn into reps of different Countries that have immigrated to New York.

My mother was an Immigrant, who came her steerage, with the animals and the cargo, in 1905. She became an American Success. But as a Doctor in New York, she did many House Calls and treated many patients, and gratis, delivered many babies during her long life. And I was lucky enough to hear all the stories of her struggles, early in life. She always let me know her opinions of immigration which were; this is where the future health of this country lies. And be sure, that after much angst, many will cross the line of poverty. And we need to help as much as we can, to give them the leg up they need, to make that leap. She remembered free, 7-day a week libraries. Free colleges (she went to Hunter) and the wonderful Theater she was able to see, for nothing and close to nothing (Eve Le Galleiere's Civic Repertory Company, among others) Hooray for Free Theater! Our Street Theater is indeed admission free, 99% Reduced Fat, or, You Can Bank On Us! That's the title for this Summer's Show! All singing! All dancing! All brainy Vaudeville! Street Theater allows our audience to love our hate it. It has a non-captive audience. It breaks that 4th wall with a giant kick and audience interaction is a good part of its joyous creation.

A breath of fresh breeze in a Hot, Muggy Summer, it takes us out of the cement and steel that holds us in, so much, in this city. This City in which I was born.

We've got a bunch of shows still in front of us. We're going to Staten Island. We're going to Tompkins Square Park. And more and more! I just can't wait! Here's the schedule:

Saturday, August 25st - 2PM - Brooklyn
Sunset Park at 44th Street & 6th Avenue

Sunday, August 26th - 2PM - Queens
Jackson Heights, Travers Park at 34th Avenue between 77th & 78th Streets

Saturday, September 8th - 2PM - Manhattan
Tompkins Square Park at East 7th Street & Avenue A

Sunday, September 9th - 2PM - Manhattan
Washington Square Park

Saturday, September 15th - 2PM - Staten Island
Corporal Thompson Park, Broadway & Wayne Street

Sunday, September 16th - 2PM - Manhattan
St. Marks Church, East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue