Good morning. It's Wednesday. Today we'll take a look at the performance of 'Enemy of the People', featuring an actor who sabotaged an actual Broadway performance. We'll also look at the green light for the Gateway project down the Hudson River.
He thought his role in the explosion made him personable on Broadway.
But this afternoon, Smith will appear on Broadway in “An Enemy of the People” with a cast that includes Bill Murray and Kathryn Erbe. Jumaane Williams, the city's public advocate, will also participate in the play. Although he has never read the play and he said he would not look at the script before a late afternoon rehearsal.
The work will not be the same as the one that was cut at Circle in the Square by Smith, a member of Extinction Rebellion, a decentralized group that has staged climate change protests at Wall Street, the U.S. Open and the Metropolitan Opera. The show is hosted by Theater of War Productions and features dramatic readings by celebrities to highlight social issues.
Unlike the Circle in the Square version, this version has no costumes, sets, or theater. It will be held outdoors on the red steps above the TKTS booth on West 47th Street at the north end of Times Square. Theater of War's artistic director, Bryan Doerries, warned Smith and the rest of the cast during rehearsals last week that the performance space was an unusual one. He said, “We’re competing against 65-foot-long hot dogs and people in mini costumes. “The Mouse and the Naked Cowboy.”
New York Times critic Jesse Green, who reviewed the preview that Smith interrupted, said that “Enemy of the People” itself was “already a protest.” snack.” Smith stood up during a raucous scene in which Jeremy Strong's character faces an unruly crowd on stage.
When Smith got up from his seat and started yelling, some audience members clearly didn't realize it wasn't just another moment in the show. Shortly thereafter, according to Deadline.com, actor Michael Imperieoli said, “You have to leave. “You’re in the way.” Another cast member, David Patrick Kelly, exclaimed, “Write your own play!”
They then pushed Smith and the two activists who had joined the chaos up the stairs toward the exit.
Strong, who was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor, said the protests were “difficult” in an interview with The New York Times in April. But “looking back, it was a gift. “Because it emphasized the content of the play,” he said.
“I was scared that I might throw my career under the bus,” Smith said. He added that his climate-related festival was “in the final stages of consideration for major funding.” (Smith said he also participated in an Earth Day protest held at The New York Times plant in College Point, Queens, where The Wall Street Journal and USA Today are also printed.)
Nonetheless, Smith said he contacted Theater of War a few weeks after the outage occurred at Circle in the Square. “I thought there was no way they would want to talk to us,” he said. “They have partnerships with large venues.”
But Doerries, a former New York City public artist in residence, said, “The answer was immediately yes.”
Smith, 36, said this would be his first performance in New York as an actor. He said he has been working in theater professionally for eight or nine years, mainly producing and writing scripts about climate change.
By contrast, Williams said he has appeared in nearly 100 War Theater productions over the past eight years. Among them was “Antigone in Ferguson,” a drama designed to honor Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. It was a Zoom performance of “The Oedipus Project,” starring Oscar Isaac, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro.
“I’m actually an actor.” Williams said. “That was my first love.”
“The Theater of War allows you to combine several passions in a pretty cool space,” he said. “Not many people can perform in the middle of Times Square.”
He also said it didn't matter that he hadn't read “Enemy of the People.” Referring to Theater of War, he said, “Part of the production is for the actors to do a minimal amount of rehearsal and then go on to perform.” It’s about giving the people involved the power to make mistakes.”
weather
Expect temperatures in the low 80s and sunshine. Mostly sunny tonight with temperatures in the low 60s.
alternative parking
Today and tomorrow (Shavuot) are suspended.
Latest New York News
Now the gateway can't be stopped
“Except for some major, major, un-act-of-God catastrophe, no system will work,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said.
This was Schumer's response to news that the Biden administration plans to provide $6.88 billion in subsidies for a long-delayed tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station. Money is the final piece of the financial puzzle for the long-delayed project known as Gateway. It will take 11 years to complete.
The notice came in a letter to congressional leaders from Veronica Vanterpool, acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. My colleague Patrick McGeehan wrote that the letter gave planners of the massive project the green light to hire an engineering and construction firm that could begin excavating through the cliffs below North Bergen, New Jersey, and the Hudson River. .
“This is literally the moment we’ve been out of this area for almost 30 years,” said Kris Kolluri, chief executive of the Gateway Development Commission, which led the project. “We are essentially at a point of no return.”
Local officials thought it was time in 2010 for Chris Christie, a Republican who had just become New Jersey's governor, to cancel the project. Some transportation experts recalled Christie's actions. New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she will indefinitely suspend congestion pricing for drivers heading to midtown Manhattan.
New York and New Jersey will commit about $4 billion to the project. Last week, the two states, along with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, agreed to borrow money from the federal government, standard practice for major infrastructure projects. But Schumer said Gateway encountered opposition in the White House when Donald Trump was president.
“Trump has put a lot of obstacles in the way of the gateway,” Schumer said. “He remained president for all four years.”
Pete Buttigieg, who was Transportation Secretary under President Biden last year, called the tunnel project “the largest and most important infrastructure project” in the United States and said Gateway, like the Golden Gate, was in the same category as “the cathedral of our infrastructure.” Bridge and Hoover Dam.
metropolitan diary
staten island ferry
To the diary:
I have lived in Staten Island for most of my adult life and commuted to Manhattan for various jobs in the Financial District. Most days I drove to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to catch a ferry to Manhattan.
One day, while driving to the terminal, I noticed an odor that seemed to be coming from the engine compartment of a car.
After parking and getting out of the car, I gently leaned my nose over the hood to quickly check if the smell was actually coming from my car.
Without smelling anything, I started walking towards the terminal. Then I heard a woman talking right behind me.