Viewing hours are generally from 10 AM – 10 PM
“Vinie Burrows was a Stalwart and Staunch Supporter of Theater for the New City. A wonderful and very active Board member, Vinie was also, a renowned actress and a member of the United Nations as an NGO advocate for Women’s Rights. She performed many times at, and for, Theater for the New City, and is well remembered, not only for her Artistic excellence but also as a teacher and inspiration for the young writers whose future has always been in the hands of Theater for the New City. Her philosophy of inclusion included her instrumental backing of low ticket prices and TNC’s free ticket program, our After School cultural arts program-Free to neighborhood children, and the 4 major community events that TNC presents every year. The 5 borough Street theater tour of a new musical, The village Halloween Costume ball, loaded with New Theater works, the wonderful annual Love n Courage Gala and the LES-Lower East Side festival of the Arts, a 3 day event packed with theater, music, dance and film. She was a beautiful woman both inside and out. And remarkably, kept that beauty through her 99th year. Her legacy is strong and lives on. As she, herself will continue to live in our Hearts”
-Crystal Field
“Joseph Vernon Banks or as we knew him, “Joe” Composer, Teacher, Conductor and Great Friend to Theater for the New City, passed away this November. His Music for TNC’s annual Street theater 5-borough tour, lent grace and joy to a new Musical with book and lyrics by Crystal Field. His generosity of spirit pervaded the theater during the rehearsals and performances of each new work. In his last years, he mentored and Supported Peter Dizzoza as an up and coming composer for the Street theater. Although, sorely missed, his influence on Peter’s music will last long into the Future, and his philosophy showed itself in his Music and Greatly influenced Crystal Fields Direction in her writing. His legacy, therefore, is strong, vibrant and will continue in the years to come. His memory will remain in the hearts of the many street theater performers that graced and will grace the outside stage of each new Operetta for the Street”
-Crystal Field
Theater for the New City’s Annual Benefit for its Emerging Playwrights Program
Monday, February 12 at 6 PM
at The Players Club • 16 Gramercy Park South
Join us on December 10th between 4-5 pm for the 32nd annual Tree Lighting at Tompkins Square Park. A festive celebration filled with holiday classics sung by our TNC carolers! While our Artistic Director Crystal Field adds enchantment by reciting “The Night Before Christmas.” This event is perfect for families to experience the magic of the season right in the heart of the Lower East Side!
SUPPORTING FAMILIES SEEKING ASYLUM
“Anyone got Diapers? Please help out, these people are our neighbors.” -Crystal Field
The Office of Council Member Carlina Rivera is teaming up with Bellevue Hospital to collect diapers of all sizes to support families seeking asylum in our communities. Through work with local partners and supporting new neighbors, we’ve found that diapers are one of the most pressing needs for families.
We welcome diaper donations of all sizes to our office located at 254 E 4th Street, New York, NY 10009 through 5 p.m. on December 8.
Our after school spring semester will begin October 16th. The Offer is only for children from the East Village and the Lower East Side neighborhoods.
William Electric Black Interviewed by Briana Bartenieff at Theater for the New City in celebration of his newly published five play anthology, GUNPLAYS: Five Plays on Inner City Violence and Guns, published by Rowman & Littlefield
William Electric Black aka Ian Ellis James – Seven Emmy Award winning writer (Sesame Street – Nickelodeon – PBS – Lancit Media – Winchester TV & Film – Pinna FM). has been a major part of the downtown theater scene for many years (Theater For The New City – La MaMa ETC.). He is a faculty member at NYU TISCH, Department of Visual and Dramatic Writing.
His work on gun violence prevention and awareness, starting with 5 and 6-year-olds has been getting major attention. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/1103391896/how-the-arts-can-help-children-think-about-gunviolence
Q: How does it feel getting five of your plays that you have produced at TNC finally published in a book format?
“I thought they were gonna publish one play. But they were like “no, we want the whole thing” It was crazy!”
Q: How did these Gun Plays come into existence?
“I remember I came in and I was like “Oh my god Crystal, I wanna do a play every year for 5 years. Of course gun violence, that was early on, I was trying to do something… When I first started, people were like “gun violence, what are you talking about? I’m like “uh no”, and crystal was great, [she said] “okay, go for it!” And we did the five plays and that’s how the gun plays came about.”
Q: Do you think the audiences are more accepting of the idea of gun violence now than 10 years ago?
“Totally, it’s freaking everywhere. When the news comes on I take pictures because it’s everywhere. This person got shot, that person got shot…people call me up for talks because everybody’s talking about it, it’s a health issue, finally, they deemed it a public health issue.”
Q: Do you believe that media, such as rap music and video games, has an impact on youth and gun violence? Do you think your more positive content, like your published book “Gun Plays” or your children’s book “A Gun is Not Fun,” also influences young people?
“We are not gonna get rid of the 400 + millions of guns… So, what’s the strategy? Is how to understand it, how to deal, how to speak up for myself and my community, so they can be advocates, they can have a voice, they can understand this is the world they live in. How do you survive in a world where there are guns?”
Q: Fondest memory at TNC?
“One of my fondest memories was when TNC was on Second Avenue. One of the first plays I ever got produced in New York was at Theater for the New City. It was “Billy Stars and Kid Jupiter: A sci-fi Jazzical.” I’ve been at Theater for the New City, a long time, the beginning of my career.”
Q: What are your plans now that your book is published?
“I’m thinking of doing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a play in late February/ March (2024) at TNC. I’m also working in Boston with these researchers on creating a program like Sesame Street from K-5th grade talking about Gun Violence.”
You can purchase William Electric Black’s new book GUNPLAYS: Five Plays on Inner City Violence and Guns at Target, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Links Below:
Target: https://www.target.com/p/gunplays-by-william-electric-black-paperback/-/A-89043856
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gunplays-William-Electric-Black/dp/1493074806
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gunplays-william-electric-black/1142900318
August 9 to September 4, 2023
LIVE JAZZ RECEPTION ~ August 9th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
K.G. Ricci, a self-taught New York City artist, made a collage on a file cabinet in 2015. The creative possibilities of the medium immediately inspired him. Fifty cut and paste panels followed, visual improvisations on 20” x 40” or 2’ X 4’ hardboard. Next, Ricci completed another series on 8” X 24” hardboard with implied literary reflections or narrative lines. He categorized hundreds of his panels in series: Femma Dilemma, “Hotel Kafka” and “3:43 A.M.”
Recently, Ricci sustained his implied narrative focus in Numbered-Not Named, a series of original pieces, 6” x 9” on black stock. His series: Random Thoughts in the Waiting Room, Wait…what? and his latest series, Incongruities, are visual flash fiction collages with a single word or a fragment of text in each composition.
K.G. Ricci has exhibited in 34 galleries including 5 solo shows and many more online galleries. His collages have been published in dozens of poetry and literary magazines nationally and internationally online and in print.
Artist Statement I work in a sort of literary/philosophical framework so within that context my reference points are the parables of Kafka and the aphorisms of Kierkegaard. Because elements determine content, the process of creation is both constrained and liberated by the available elements at any given time and it is the improvised procedure of choice, assembly and judgment that settles the argument. My work is not personal nor autobiographical in any way but rather seeks to address the “condition” we all share. That bring me to one of my favorite quotes by Kierkegaard, “I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it, ‘That piece cannot be moved’.”
