SO LONG, BOSS 
 Brooklyn Democratic Party leader to step down next week 
 BY AIDAN GRAHAM AND  
 INSIDE 
 WWW.BROOKLYNPDAPILEYR.C.COOMM   1 METROTECH CENTER NORTH • 10TH FLOOR • BROOKLYN, NY 11201  
 Founder of the feast: Kathryn Turner, being held aloft, plays the wealthy title character in Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens,” opening on Jan. 19 at Theater for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare  
 Center in Fort Greene.  Photo by Henry Grossman 
 Power play 
 Shakespeare show confronts wealth and gender issues 
 By Bill Roundy  She’s got  a heart of gold. 
 One of Shakespeare’s least-known  
 plays will get a vital new staging this  
 weekend, a revival that deals with gender,  
 greed, and  loyalty. The star of “Timon of  
 Athens,” which opens at Fort Greene’s  
 Polonsky  Shakespeare  Center  on  Jan.  19,  
 says that diving deep into the canon offers  
 a chance to break new ground. 
 “It’s exciting to welcome people to  
 a  play  that  they’re  not  familiar  with,  
 and don’t know the story,” said Kathryn  
 Turner, who plays the title character. 
 The play follows a wealthy Athenian  
 who lavishes money on his friends, goes  
 broke, and is abandoned by those same  
 friends. He retreats to the woods and  
 becoming  a  misanthropic  hermit,  only  to  
 discover a hidden trove of gold there. For  
 this production, Timon has been re-written  
 as a woman — a change that still feels true  
 to Shakespeare’s time, said Turner. 
 “Originally,  the  female  parts  were  
 played by men, so Shakespeare was always  
 playing  gender  games.  So  in  that  sense,  
 we’re very Shakespearean,” said Turner. 
 The creators briefly considered having  
 Turner play the part as a man, but decided  
 that  it  would  be  more  interesting  with  
 a woman in the lead, said the show’s  
 director. 
 “At this moment in time, a woman  
 playing it as a woman felt like the more  
 audacious option, in a strange way,” said  
 Simon Godwin, who developed the play  
 with Turner for a run with the Royal  
 Shakespeare Company in 2018. 
 Godwin is not precious with the words  
 of  the  Bard,  noting  that  Shakespeare  
 himself was always experimenting with  
 his plays. 
 “The  more  experimental  and  brave  
 we  are  with  them,  the  more  I  think  
 Shakespeare-the-ghost likes us for that,”  
 he said. 
 The  show  has  undergone  a  few  
 changes  since  its  first  production  in  
 England.  It  opens  in  Timon’s  over-thetop  
 home,  featuring  gold  walls,  gold  
 chairs,  and  golden  cups.  For  New  
 Yorkers,  the  scene  evokes  the  famously  
 gilded  accessories  of  Trump  Tower,  but  
 Godwin toned down the set to downplay  
 the connection. 
 “The set was actually much more gold,  
 and we’ve made it more silvery this time  
 in order to avoid too strict a parallel with  
 Trump,” he said. 
 The play has a lot to say about greed  
 and the power of money, but it is not  
 particular to this time, or to this president,  
 said Godwin. 
 “In  the  play,  there  are  no  easy  
 symmetries,” he said. “Is Timon Trump?  
 Absolutely not. But is there a resonance  
 with  the  corrosive  power  of  money?  
 Absolutely yes.” 
 “Timon of Athens” at Theater for a New  
 Audience’s Polonksy Shakespeare Center  
 262 Ashland Pl. between Fulton Street  
 and Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, (866)  
 811–4111, www.tfana.org. Jan. 19–Feb. 9;  
 ; Tue–Fri at 7:30 pm; Sat at 2 pm and 7:30  
 pm; Sun at 3 pm. $90–$117 ($20 students or  
 those 30 or younger). 
 Your entertainment 
 guide Page 41 
 Police Blotter ..........................8 
 Opinion ...................................30 
 Letters ..................................... 31 
 Health ..................................... 35 
 Standing O ............................46 
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 COURIER L 4     IFE, JANUARY 17-23, 2020 
 KEVIN DUGGAN 
 Frank  Seddio  will  step  
 down  as  the  leader  of  the  
 Brooklyn Democratic Party  
 next  week,  saying  he  wants  
 to  take  a  less  active  role  in  
 county  politics  as  he  edges  
 closer to retirement. 
 “I think eight years is long  
 enough,”  Seddio  said.  “I’m  74  
 years old and I want to do more  
 with my wife and my family.” 
 Seddio, who was fi rst  
 elected  as  Chairman  of  the  
 Kings  County  Democratic  
 Party in 2012, will offi cially  
 step down Monday and the  
 party’s executive committee  
 will choose his replacement at  
 a closed-door meeting on Jan.  
 20. 
 Brooklyn’s  top  Democrat  
 is  choosing  to  back  Assemblywoman  
 Rodneyse Bichotte  
 (D—Flatbush)  as  his  interim  
 successor,  who,  if  elected,  
 would be the fi rst woman to  
 hold the position, which would  
 give her signifi cant infl uence  
 over the borough’s court system  
 and local elections. 
 Bichotte did not return a  
 request for comment. 
 The sudden announcement  
 of Seddio’s departure — coupled  
 with the impending vote  
 for his successor — took some  
 Brooklyn  Democrats  by  surprise, 
  with reform-minded  
 district leaders and political  
 activists accusing the party’s  
 chief of handpicking his replacement  
 in a rush to ward  
 off any serious contenders. 
 “I  would  like  some  assurances  
 that the new leader was  
 put in place because people  
 felt that she or he has the requisite  
 skills  to rule  the party  
 and wasn’t  part  of  some  deal  
 making behind the scenes,”  
 said  Josh  Skaller,  District  
 Leader for the 52nd District,  
 which  includes  Downtown  
 Brooklyn. 
 As  it  stands,  rank-and-fi le  
 Democrats have no clear understanding  
 of Bichotte’s platform, 
  nor of her plans for the  
 party, and with only seven  
 days before the borough’s 42  
 District Leaders are asked  
 to  vote  on  their  next  county  
 chairperson, there are currently  
 no  clear  viable  alternatives  
 to  Seddio’s  chosen  
 candidate, according to a  
 spokeswoman for a progressive  
 political club. 
 “Brooklynites deserve to  
 hear  what  Rodneyse’s  vision  
 is and for other candidates to  
 be able  to put  themselves  forward,” 
  said Jessica Thurston  
 of New Kings Democrats. “It  
 seems predetermined by existing  
 leadership.” 
 Seddio has existed as a staple  
 of Kings County politics,  
 particularly around Canarsie,  
 Mill  Basin,  Sheepshead  Bay,  
 and Marine Park, since the  
 1980s,  when  he  parlayed  his  
 experience as a community liaison  
 for local police precincts  
 into a career as a civic leader  
 and later as a politician.  
 The Canarsie native served  
 alternatively  as  Community  
 Board  18’s  district  manager  
 and chairman in the late ’80s  
 early ’90s, before being elected  
 as  an  assemblyman  to  represent  
 Flatlands,  Marine Park,  
 Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, and  
 Canarsie from 1998–2005. 
 A practicing attorney, Seddio  
 was later elected as a surrogate  
 court judge, and in 2010  
 became  the  male  Democratic  
 District Leader for the 59th  
 District, before taking over  
 the helm of the party from the  
 late Vito Lopez two years later,  
 after his predecessor stepped  
 down  in  the wake of multiple  
 sexual  assault  allegations  by  
 female staffers, to whom he  
 offered public funds as hush  
 money. 
 Seddio’s resignation comes  
 amid  concerns  raised  by  activists  
 about the health of the  
 Democratic  party’s  fi nances,  
 which have deteriorated under  
 Seddio’s stewardship from  
 $505,000 in 2013 to just $32,800  
 in  July  2019,  according  to  a  
 NY Daily News report. 
 The party’s fi nancial troubles  
 occur  as  Seddio  himself  
 faces lawsuits over debts totaling  
 $2.2 million he allegedly  
 owes to the Kentucky-based  
 Golden Resources LLC, which  
 owns a Golden Corral restaurant  
 franchise in which he invested  
 in the Bluegrass State,  
 the Daily News reported.  
 Seddio  denied  that  his  fi - 
 nancial diffi culties played into  
 his decision to step down.  
 At its last twice-yearly  
 meeting  in  September,  the  
 party’s full membership voted  
 to create a fi nance committee  
 to oversee the party’s ailing fi - 
 nances, to which Bichotte was  
 appointed chair. 
 Seddio also came under  
 fi re for using hundreds of absentee  
 votes known as proxy  
 cards to overpower rank-andfi  
 le members at the party’s  
 typically raucous meetings,  
 and one Greenpoint district  
 leader hopes that whoever his  
 successor is will limit that tactic. 
 “Regardless of who’s in  
 charge, the party needs to get  
 more transparent and more  
 democratic,”  said Nick Rizzo.  
 “It’s the only way this rusty  
 old machine can survive.” 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 BROOKLYN GRAPHIC (ISSN 0740-2260) Copyright © 2020 by the Brooklyn Courier Life LLC is published weekly by Brooklyn Courier Life LLC, One Metrotech North, 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201. 52 times a year. Business and  
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 Frank Seddio said he will step down as leader of the Brooklyn Democratic  
 Party next week.    File photo by Derrick Watterson 
 
				
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