Arrive at 2:45pm.

Film Forum is in Soho, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014, between 6th Avenue and Varick (7th Avenue). Click here for a map, directions, and subway info.

If you’re coming from Baruch I recommend you walk over to 23 St. and 6th Ave. and take the F/V to West 4th St. Exit at the front of the train and walk downtown on 6th Ave. to Houston St. Take a right on Houston and Film Forum is halfway down the block.

To get the ball rolling, here are some things I would like to see or do with you…

• Zhang Huan exhibition at the Asia Society ($5)
• Kara Walker and/or Lawrence Weiner at the Whitney Museum ($free)
• Martin Puryear (sculpture) and George Seurat (drawings) at MoMA ($free)
• Visit the Museum of the City of New York, with some great exhibits including a baseball show ($5)
• New York Historical Society with Here is New York, a show of photographs commemorating 9/11 ($6)
• Walking tour of Central Park ($free)
• A visit to Staten Island including riding the ferry, seeing the murals at the Borough Hall, and going to the Staten Island Museum ($free-$1)
• An afternoon at the movies – independent film at Film Forum, your choice of The Violin (Mexico, 2006) on December 5, Nanking (USA, 2007) on December 12, or Camp do Thiaroye (Senegal, 1987) on December 12 ($6).
• Ingo Maurer exhibition (lighting designer) at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, $10
• Backstage tour of the Metropolitan Opera House, $8, either Dec 5 or Dec 12
• ‘Au Revoir Parapluie”, a contemporary CIRCUS performance, at BAM (evening event – probably ~$20, either Dec 5 or Dec 12)
• art-themed scavenger hunt at Baruch (free – leave it to me to arrange or you can come up with something)

For all events, the sooner we decide what to do the better so I can try to get us in for free or reduced rate. We need to make a final decision for our Dec 5 class by this Wednesday (Nov. 28). If you don’t decide something, I will!

Get directions at this link.

Meet me in the art gallery in the south lobby of the Opera House between 7:15 and 7:30pm to pick up your ticket. Please no hassles with arriving late this time. There is plenty to see and do if you arrive early. Many people dress up for the Opera but that is by no means required. Feel free to bring your ‘opera glasses’! The performance will finish at 11:30pm.

The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera with fabulous music. It’s one of the most famous operas ever made. You can read a synopsis of the opera and hear an audio preview at this link. For this production, the male leads are especially notable singers (Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside). Here’s a recent NYTimes review of the production. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the score and Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. The opera was first performed in 1786. It is sung in the original Italian, with English subtitles (at the Met, these are shown on a screen on the back of the seat in front of you). You can read the libretto in Italian here or its English translation here.

See you Wednesday between 7:15 and 7:30!

See you Friday!

check it out at http://macaulay.cuny.edu/gallery/main.php

Hopefully your recent experience of writing a brief piece for an audience gave you some fresh insight into theater, language, and performance. Still I can’t guarantee that this event won’t leave you scratching your head a bit so if you’re interested, here is some info to consult:

• information on the play cycle
• a radio story regarding the plays and the playwright
• the ‘play of the day’ from the play cycle
• a brief article about the play cycle from the NYTimes.
• a long but very engaging profile about the playwright by the critic Hilton Als, from the New Yorker.

For information regarding the performances discussed in the article see this link.

PS For my part I have enjoyed remembering your spoken-word pieces for the past day.

Performances run from November 13-17, evenings at 7:30 and also a Saturday matinee at 2:00pm.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry discussing the play – once you see the production, you can add to the entry with your own critique!

For complimentary tickets
contact Eric Krebs at 212-967-7079
or email him at EKTMINC[at]aol.com

For information on location etc.

Eric Krebs writes…

Eric Krebs Invites You to See Broadway Bound Musical, LORENZO

WHO? Lorenzo Da Ponte began life as a poor, Italian, Jewish poet and ended up as a professor at Columbia University. Along the way he became a priest… was driven out of Venice by furious husbands… fled Vienna for being in the wrong political camp… escaped from debtor’s prison in London after going bankrupt starting a grand opera company… became a grocer in Elizabeth, New Jersey. THEN he became the first professor of Italian at Columbia…. BY THE WAY, WHILE IN VIENNA HE WROTE THE LIBRETTOS FOR MOZART’S THREE GREAT OPERAS, COSI FAN TUTTI, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and DON GIOVANNI !

This is a with a gorgeous lush score by Judd Woldin (RAISIN, LITTLE HAM), wonderfully inventive lyrics by Richard Engquist (LITTLE HAM, KUNI LEML) and a fast moving fun book by Engquist and Woldin, LORENZO is a fabulous, refreshing surprise… I PROMISE.

It is my intention to bring LORENZO to a Broadway theater in the fall of 2008. I am seeking producing partners, associate producers and eventually investors for this adventure .But for this first public New York presentation I invite you just as a friend of mine (and of theater) to pass a delightful 90 minutes with LORENZO. Please join me:

LORENZO
Players Theater
115 MacDougal Street
6:00 PM

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
November 13, 14, 15

RSVP: 212-967-7079
EKTMINC[at]aol.com

Wednesday Oct. 31: Reviews due. Also, during class you will be working with Lynn (and me) on creating audio files & podcasts using your computers. Bring your laptops to class.

Saturday Nov. 3, 7:30pm: Class trip to a dance performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In this dance piece, everything on the stage has been found, borrowed, or stolen. The performance will last just over an hour. Here’s a link to more info. We will meet there. I will not provide dinner…

Wednesday Nov. 7: Next creative assignment due. Remember you need to use ordinary language from daily life (you can find your language by any method you like) to create a spoken word piece. Whether you make a short play, or a poem, or whatever, it must be performed during the class. Please keep your piece to 5 minutes or so, so that we can experience everyone’s work.